A CHILDREN'S food guru has been forced to backtrack on "misleading" claims that her meals were healthy, after concerns were raised in Croydon.
Annabel Karmel, who was awarded an MBE in 2006 for outstanding work in child nutrition, was signed up by British Home Stores to develop a children's menu for its restaurants.
But the retail chain has been forced to remove misleading claims about the benefits of her food after an expert reported her concerns to Croydon Council.
Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston took action after seeing burgers, sausages, chips and ice cream promoted as healthy options on posters at BHS in the Whitgift Centre.
"I'm a parent and acknowledge how difficult it is to steer children away from foods that increase their risk of chronic disease amidst so much media and peer pressure," she said.
"It's both frustrating and irresponsible that BHS and Annabel Karmel chose to label junk food as 'healthy meals for kids'.
"Parents and children are bombarded with healthy eating messages. But they are being faced with confusing advertisements in their local shopping centre for healthy kids' meals."
In June, Mrs Bishop-Weston, who used to live in Croydon before moving to Hampshire, contacted the council, which launched an investigation.
"The food safety team discussed its concerns with BHS about promoting Annabel Karmel's children's menu as healthy," a spokeswoman for the local authority said.
"It was agreed that they would remove the claim from promotional displays so as not to mislead the public."
Neil Alcorn, from the council's food safety team, said: "We have been told they have had several high-level meetings with Annabel Karmel regarding working for the children's meal boards in the store and have agreed that the word 'healthy' will be removed."
In a joint statement, BHS and Mrs Karmel said: "New menus will not include the word 'healthy'. Instead they will focus on specific nutritional benefits of each individual product. All of the meals sit within Government nutritional guidelines per meal for children aged five to ten."
Mrs Bishop-Weston, who runs London Nutritionist in High Street, Croydon, said the menu remained far from healthy.
"The BHS meals make it difficult to even reach the Government's modest target of five-a-day," she said.
"Anyone who thinks it's natural for us to eat meat three times a day should try jumping on a cow's back and taking a bite out of its backside, and seeing how far they get."
