Glasgow is celebrating the success of its free fruit for schools scheme by enlisting health minister Andy Kerr to hand out the 40 millionth piece of free fruit to the city's primary and nursery school pupils.

Kerr will present a trophy to Glasgow's Saracen Primary school, marking the success of Fruit Plus, a healthy eating project launched by Glasgow City Council and Greater Glasgow Health Board in 2001.

The scheme now sees 10 million items of fresh fruit, weighing 1.3 million kilos, distributed to Glasgow pupils every year.

Kerr said: "The project is an excellent example of offering children the building blocks that will enable them to make healthier choices throughout their lives."

Meanwhile, Glasgow’s healthy eating messages are spreading as far as Europe.

At a conference in Florence, Italy this week, the World Health Organisation announced plans to adopt several healthy lifestyle initiatives introduced in the city and throughout Scotland.

This followed a presentation by NHS Health Scotland on the long-standing health crisis facing the country.

Renowned for its love of deep-frying, Glasgow has been heralded the “sick man of Europe” and only recently surrendered the title of heart attack capital of Europe.

But the NHS highlighted the success it had encountered in introducing initiatives such as Fruit Plus after joining forces with the city council and other organisations to remedy the poor health situation and help rid the city of these negative associations.

Ian Young, head of international development for NHS Health Scotland, said the WHO showed a significant interest in adopting some of its schemes.

He said delegates were particularly impressed with the Hungry for Success programme to revamp schools meals and the drive to improve the mental health of young people.

Scotland’s healthy eating drive has been given a further boost this week by reports that eating a piece of fruit instead of a fatty snack could save as many as 7,000 lives a year.

Researchers at Liverpool University and heart charity Heart of Mersey evaluated the nutritional content of healthy snacks, such as fruit and unhealthy items, such as chocolate.

They calculated the impact of reducing saturated fat on cholesterol levels and the overall affect on coronary heart disease, as well as the impact of salt reduction on incidences of strokes.

The results showed that if UK citizens opted for an apple every day instead of crisps, there would be 3,838 fewer deaths from heart disease and 3,115 fewer deaths from stroke each year.

The proposed four per cent drop in deaths could also save the NHS around £370m, the study found.

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