Taxpayers' money is being handed to fast-food firms such as Nestle and PepsiCo while ministers fail to tackle the obesity crisis, a damning study says. Huge corporations are among those being given grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds while the NHS faces a growing burden from illnesses linked to weight gain. One firm was given almost £500,000 to help improve its chocolate while others were handed large sums to make biscuits or sell ice cream. Taxpayers' money is being handed to fast-food firms such as  PepsiCo as the UK fails to tackle its ongoing obesity crisis . The revelations, contained in a study led by the UK Coronary Prevention Group, has sparked fresh claims that the Government is too close to food firms and is doing ‘too little’ to tackle the £47billion annual cost of obesity. The charity said seven in ten middle-aged adults are overweight despite the millions spent on the Government’s anti-obesity strategy and it has called for a radical overhaul of healthy-eating policies. Its report identified a string of occasions when public cash was given to firms who make millions marketing junk food for projects that undermine public health. £86,472 from public funds to help companies make confectionery wafer biscuits. £31,000 government grant to help a farmer convert a barn into an ice cream shop. £637,812 handout to help a company improve its chocolate blending equipment. £24,750 to develop 3-D chocolate printing for personalised gifts. 0%VAT charged on unhealthy cake mix, drinking chocolate and salt – compared with 20 per cent levied on mineral water and healthy snacks such as roast almonds and dried fruit. It found the Government’s Technology Strategy Board gave £637,812 to a joint project with Mondelez – the parent company of Cadbury – for ‘confectionary production’. Another grant of £487,268 was given to Nestec, part of Nestle, to research ‘chocolate cooling technology’. The board also put £356,076 into a joint project with PepsiCo to research dehydrated snacks. Meanwhile, the Rural Development Programme for England gave two grants in 2010 – £12,500 towards biscuit production and £11,400 to help convert a barn into a chocolate-making unit. The year before, the quango handed over £143,000 to convert a farm building for ice cream production. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council put £100,173 into a project designed to improve the ‘sensory properties’ of confectionary wafers. Some £180,000 went on two other projects involving wafers. The UK Coronary Prevention Group says the Government has ‘failed’ on obesity and ‘done too little’ to tackle dietary habits. UK Coronary Prevention Group said seven in ten middle-aged adults are overweight despite the millions spent on the Government’s anti-obesity strategy and it has called for a radical overhaul of healthy-eating policies . Professor Philip James, chairman of the charity’s trustees, said: ‘Some of these grants are greater than the amounts spent by local health services tackling overweight in adults and children.’ The group has now identified 200 measures including a ban on fast-food outlets near schools and business-rate cuts for alternatives offering healthy dishes. Supermarkets would also be required to offer price promotions on healthy food, while there would be strict controls on all food sold in schools and hospitals. The report comes after it emerged last month that the Government’s anti-obesity drive was being overseen by a firm that also helps promote fast food. PR business Freud Communications earns £3million a year to run crucial public-health campaigns – including Change4Life – while also working with companies including Mars, KFC, PepsiCo and Walkers crisps. Experts claim that thousands by putting a health tax of 12p a can on sugary drinks . Researchers have claimed that rather than giving taxpayer funds to fast food firms, the government should be putting up the price of full sugar drinks like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Experts at the University of Liverpool and the Children’s Food Campaign claim that thousands of cases of diabetes and cancer could be avoided, saving the NHS £300million, by putting a health tax of 12p a can on sugary drinks. The academics' work will fuel the growing campaign to extend the principle of a duty on unhealthy products from cigarettes and alcohol to some types of drink and food. Health campaigners and doctors have controversially likened sugar and its contribution to obesity and ill-health as the ‘new tobacco’. The Liverpool team calculates that a tax of 20p per litre – 12p per can – would reduce the number of cases of diabetes by just under 50,000 over 20 years. They estimate there would be a fall of 33,000 in cases of stroke and heart disease and some 9,000 fewer victims of bowel cancer. These figures relate to England alone and the researchers estimate it would lead to savings of £300m in the cost of treating these people over the 20 years, releasing money for other patients.
A study found thousands of pounds were being given to junk food firms . Nestle was given almost £500,000 to help improve its chocolate making . PepsiCo was handed a further £350,000 for on research dehydrated snacks . Revelation comes as NHS struggles with the £47bn annual cost of obesity . It has sparked fresh claims that the government is too close to food firms .