Kids demand branded foods

Children from low-income families are turning their noses up at own-brand and valuepacked lunch foods in favour of more expensive brands, it is reported today.

They are worried that schoolmates will find out that their families shop at food discount stores, and refuse even to carry plastic bags from such retailers.

In the latest playground culture, research shows that after years of pestering parents for designer clothes, football strips and PlayStations, children are now becoming food snobs.

Parents from poor families are particularly affected and are being bullied and badgered by their children if they buy food from low-cost stores such as Lidl and Kwik Save.

The one-upmanship over food labels and brands is documented in a report from Demos, an independent think-tank.

Researchers blame hard-sell commercials on television which are directed at children. They are calling for a "fat tax" on advertising and promotion of highly processed and fatty foods to fund a new national promotion agency.

This comes days after parents named and shamed the food and drink brands they believe are letting down their children. Dairylea, McDonald's and Sunny Delight came in for particular criticism for being "absolutely vile, over-processed rubbish".

One 42-year-old mother from Gloucester told The Times that a friend's son "went ballistic" when she and his mother had gone shopping in Kwik Save.

The boy said: "I'm not eating prison food, they'll laugh at me at school."

Asked what they would do with more money, mothers said they would buy more branded foods. Most said that, if they bought any branded food, it was nearly always for their children.

Caroline Hitchman, a health promotion officer for Newham Primary Health Trust, who carried out the research, said: "This shows how hard it really is for families on low incomes when they have to put up with this type of fuss from children."

A Kwik Save spokesman said the store had phased out its ownbrand goods because of their less attractive packaging and now just sold main brands at low prices.