The decision comes amid concerns that consumers would assume that products carrying the logo were approved by the government.
Kellogg, Mars and Nestlé were among the companies that wanted to use the logos to associate their brands with the anti-obesity campaign.
Sian Jarvis, director-general of communications at the DoH, said her department reached an agreement with the project's commercial partners that it was not the right time to do on-pack advertising with Change4Life.
‘There was a general sense that this is very difficult because it would be perceived as a Kitemark and the public would see it as endorsing that product, so we backed away,' added Jarvis.
Separately, the DoH is running a ‘root and branch' review of public health marketing spend. Consultancy Oxford Strategic Marketing will conduct the work, while executives from Unilever, PepsiCo and Tesco have agreed to sit on a review advisory board.
Once the strategy is finalised, the DoH will review its ad agencies and reassess the structure of the marketing department.
Both the Conservatives and the Labour Party plan to cut adspend should they be elected to form the next government.
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