The Childrens' Food Campaign says chance to create a positive health legacy from London 2012

Health campaigners are urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban junk food and fizzy drink brands from future sporting sponsorship deals in a critical new report which says the committee has squandered the chance to create a positive health legacy from the London 2012 Games. The Obesity Games report, published by The Childrens' Food Campaign (CFC), found that corporate sponsorship accounts for less than 10% of the total funding for the London 2012 Games, while fast food sponsors contribute only about 2% of the IOC income. Yet the major sponsors Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Cadbury are given an unrivalled platform to promote their unhealthy brands and products, it says. The CFC is calling for the IOC to help tackle rising obesity levels by setting conditions on promoting healthy eating in their sponsorship deals and for junk food brands to be excluded. The findings will trigger fresh criticism of the stranglehold on food and drink at the Games held by sponsors Cadbury, McDonald's (its largest restaurant in the world is in the Olympic Park) and Coca-Cola, which is expected to serve 23m soft drinks at the Games due to its near-monopoly at Olympic venues. CFC co-ordinator Malcolm Clark said: "The Olympics have become a celebration of 'big'. For the junk food companies who sponsor the Games, that means big restaurants, big audiences, big brand value, big profits. But for children that could also mean bigger waistlines and bigger health problems later in life." He said the IOC could decide to cut out the top-tier category of food and soft drink partners entirely and lose little more than 2% of its total income.