Marketing has learned that groups including the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), Advertising Association (AA), and Food and Drink Federation were represented at the meeting chaired by Cadbury Schweppes chairman and ISBA president John Sunderland.
The informal coalition was convened to develop a long-term marketing strategy to promote healthy living and diets to British children.
A food industry source told Marketing the initiative will seek commercial funding and the government will be asked to match funds raised by corporations.
Speaking at a hearing of the Health Select Committee's Inquiry into Obesity last week, AA director general Andrew Brown said the impact of food advertising on dietary choices was "minimal".
He said: "The advertising and food and drink industries need to work proactively together, in concert with the government and other stakeholders, to tackle this issue."
Brown appeared before the select committee alongside Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO chief executive Cilla Snowball and Leo Burnett group chief executive Bruce Haines. A further session next week will hear from representatives of Cadbury Schweppes, PepsiCo UK, McDonald's and Kellogg.
The inquiry comes as pressure intensifies on the food and advertising industries over children's eating habits.
Labour MP Debra Shipley has secured a Second Reading for her Bill to ban advertising for most food products during children's airtime, while the Food Standards Agency has published a discussion paper raising the prospect of a ban on celebrity endorsements of fast food and fizzy drinks.
Last week, the Food Advertising Unit hosted a conference, Changing Attitudes to Children's Food, at which M&C Saatchi partner David Kershaw said a ban would be "ineffectual" and "a smokescreen for a failure to tackle the real causes".
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