Health bosses could be set to abandon a controversial plan to introduce a health rating food labelling system.

Reports in the national newspapers suggest the government could be about to back down in the face of overwhelming industry opposition to the “traffic light” based system.

Ministers had hoped the system would make it easy for consumers to tell whether food was good for them or not, but food and drinks firms said they would not co-operate with the scheme, insisting the approach was unscientific, and many industry experts stated the system was too simplistic.

Now officials are reported to be considering other labelling options.

The scheme was initially outlined in the governments White Paper on public health and was mainly aimed at products high in salt, fat or sugar, which would carry a red warning symbol, while healthier products, such as fresh produce, would carry a green label.

Lobbyists, the Food and Drink Federation were reported to be gathering evidence to challenge the scientific basis of the scheme and is due to submit a file to health chiefs next week.

A spokesman, from the Department of Health, told the evening standard: “We are talking about a coding system, but it is not necessarily going to be red, yellow and green. We are not saying that is definitely what we are looking at. We have never called it traffic lighting.”