The 5 A DAY initiative is set to get a boost from a series of TV adverts featuring an 11-year-old boy, put together by the department of health (DoH).
Zac Mattoon O'Brien, from London, will star in four TV adverts to encourage the public to consume at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
The budding Jamie Oliver is shown pretending to be a celebrity chef and presenting a show from his kitchen, mimicking a stall-holder at a market as he tries to charm a little girl and persuade her to eat more fruit and vegetables, as well as on a supermarket shopping trip, presenting his shopping adventure as a nature programme and revealing his parents’ hunter-gatherer habits in the store.
The 5 A DAY tips from Zac include to keep trying fruit and veg with fussy eaters, to buy produce in season for the best value for money and to disguise fruit and vegetables in meals.
A spokesperson for the DoH said: “Addressing barriers often related to why people do not get their dose of five fruits and veg a day, but cheeky chappy Zac is at hand to offer an array of tips for fussy eaters, including disguising veg in food, cutting up carrots to use in yummy dips and putting pieces of fruit in ice cream on a hot day. He even gets fruity in the kitchen and cooks up a shepherds pie from tinned and frozen fruits and veg.”
