Asda has given its full backing to the government's new 5-a-day scheme, which was launched at the chain's Clapham superstore, in London on Tuesday.

However, retail reaction has been mixed. While Sainsbury's is shunning the official logo in favour of its own in-house 5-a-day badge, which will be launched in May, Tesco has refuted national media suggestions that it is snubbing the official 5-a-day scheme.

Hamish Renton, Tesco's business planning manager, told the Journal: 'The implication is that we are against their programme but that is not the case. For more than a year we have been running our own 5-a-day project, based around nutrition guidelines we have developed with the DoH. We have also gone down the track of promoting fruit and vegetables with a generic health message and we have worked very closely with Cancer Research UK.' Renton shared a platform with the DoH's Imogen Sharp at the 5-a-day symposium in Berlin in January, and said that Tesco has been totally aligned with the development of the government project since then.

'We are registering to use the new logo and we will be meeting with representatives of the DoH later this week to discuss how we can dovetail the two campaigns. We already have our own packaging in-store and it takes some time to change packaging, so it may be that we use the logo differently in separate parts of our business.' Asda's nutritionist Sue Malcolm said: 'We want to support the government in a co-ordinated response that maximises the impact of this important message and at the same time provide customers with clear information to show what a portion of fruit or vegetables actually looks like.' Sainsbury's said its customers wanted a logo that identified exactly how many portions of fruit and vegetable a serving the product provides. If a product contains one portion (roughly 80g) of fruit or vegetables per serving, one square of the portion indicator will be shaded. If a typical serving would give you two portions, two squares will be shaded.

'Sainsbury's is committed to making it easier for our customers to enjoy a healthy, balanced diet and are sure our new labelling will help clarify this important message to all our customers,' said a spokesperson.

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