The Food Dudes initiative has suffered from poor backing despite excellent credentials, according to its creator.

Tracey Anthony, Food Dudes strategy business development manager at Bangor University, claimed Food Dudes was responsible for a “200 per cent increase in fruit and vegetable consumption” in some schools at the Catering in the Public Sector conference in London last week.

A number of reports have questioned why the Food Dudes scheme is not in every classroom in the UK. Royal College of General Practitioners president Professor Steve Field pointed the blame at parents, politicians and the lack of funding and devotion given to such projects by central government.

The Food Dudes initiative has now reached 120 schools across the UK and further afield to schools in the US.

Thousands of schoolchildren aged between two and 11 in the UK, Ireland and California are now participating in the programme to encourage children in the US to consume more fresh produce, created by Professor Fergus Lowe of Bangor University.

Asda’s external affairs director Paul Kelly also lamented the apparent apathy towards nutrition at the conference. He said: “Food is not high enough on the government agenda and the cabinet committee on food has stood down.”

Kelly insists that the situation is unfair given the number of people employed in the UK food industry.

Lowe believes if more schools and local authorities are to take up the scheme, more has to be done by food companies and the fresh produce sector in general. He said a lack of co-operation by major supermarkets has only served as a stumbling block to the nationwide expansion of Food Dudes.