New five-a-day campaign for fruit and vegetables

Young people are eating as little as one portion a day

We have all got the message that it is important to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day in order to stay healthy, but many of remain confused about which foods qualify and what constitutes a portion and many of us still aren't eating enough.

As part of a campaign to encourage us to eat more fruit and vegetables, the Department of Health will today announce a list of products that qualify. This should make it easier to keep track of what we're eating.

We spoke to food and health researcher Jack Winkler

Click here to see the interview

And the public health minister Hazel Blears joined us from her kitchen

Click here to see the interview

The so called five-a-day campaign will also include a logo for food packaging to be launched in the spring that will identify those items that can be counted towards the all important five portions.

It's thought likely that some tinned vegetables will be excluded because they contain salt, and this is likely to extend to packaged fruit and veg that contain sugar or fat.

A logo will identify foods that qualify

Eating at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day can help to significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers.

But a report published today by the National Diet and Nutrition Survey suggests that we are still not eating enough fruit and vegetables and this is particularly the case for younger people.

The NDNS says that only 13 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women eat the recommended five portions a day, but the 19 to 24 age group were found to be eating as little as one portion a day.

The Public Health Minister Hazel Blears said: "The evidence shows that eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day has very real health benefits - it could help prevent up to 20% of deaths from our nation's biggest killers such as heart disease and some cancers. Yet today's survey shows most people aren't eating enough.

We need to make it easy for people to make healthy choices and the development of our new logo is one way to achieve that.

We hope the food industry will support this initiative to give consumers quick and easy access to the information they need to know what counts towards a healthy diet."