PARENTS in the South West are being encouraged to be “food smart” and take control of their children’s diets.

This comes as a result of new findings that children in England consume half their daily recommended sugar intake before the morning school bell rings.

Latest figures show that childhood obesity in England has reached alarming rates with 21.9 per cent of four to five-year-olds in the South West being overweight or obese.

Public Health England’s new Change4Life campaign is encouraging parents to help fix the problem, starting at home.

They have released a free app which helps families to choose healthier options for their children.

It works by scanning the barcode of products to reveal the sugar cubes, blobs of fat and sachets of salt they contain.

This allows parents to compare brands as well as featuring ‘food detective’ activities for children and mini-missions which the whole family can enjoy.

Justine Womack, Health and Wellbeing Programme Lead for Public Health England South West said: “We’ve developed our Be Food Smart app because the amount of sugar and saturated fat hidden in processed food plays a significant role in causing childhood obesity.

“We want to make it easy for families to know how much sugar, fat and salt they’re actually eating.

“Whether it’s at the breakfast table or what they’re buying on the way into school, the latest child obesity figures for the South West indicate that our children are simply eating and drinking too much sugar.”

Parents can download the new free Be Food Smart app from the iTunes App Store or Google Play.