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'Choices' will see logos placed on 250 food and drink products that offer a 'healthier choice' and 'adhere to international dietary guidelines'.

Vindi Banga, president of foods at Unilever, said the system will make nutrition information more meaningful and accessible 'regardless of geography or product category'.

However, a spokesman for Sustain, a body that campaigns for better food and farming, described the move as 'wholly unsatisfactory'. He said: 'It is deeply disappointing and another example of the food industry stepping short of the mark.'

±±¾©Èü³µpk10ers feel the initiative reveals a lack of transparency and a desire to deflect public criticism by not naming unhealthy items. An unspecified two-thirds of Unilever food products will carry the mark.

Unilever is the latest firm to shun the Food Standards Agency's recommendation to adopt a traffic-light system to label foods.

The Food and Drink Federation is to launch a consumer advertising campaign for an alternative Guideline Daily Allowance scheme this summer (Marketing, 24 May).