This article relates to Myths About Your 5 a Day.
Over the past 10 years, the government has spent more than £9 million on promoting its '5-a-Day' campaign in a bid to improve the nation's health.
The aim was a noble and simple one - to encourage the public to eat more fruit and vegetables to help thwart this country's burgeoning obesity crisis and cut the rates of heart disease and cancer.
But despite this, recent research has shown that the public's consumption of fresh produce has actually dropped, with only one in four of us eating enough.
And in all, more than 42,000 people each year die through illnesses linked to a lack of fresh fruit and veg in their diet.
So what has gone wrong with this vital health campaign and what steps are being taken to put it right?
Dispatches reveals how the crucial five-a-day message has been hijacked by the food industry and manufacturers use their own five-a-day labels on certain processed foods with high sugar, fat or salt content.
One ready-meal bearing a 'one of your five-a-day' logo contained almost 8 grams of salt - more than is recommended for the entire day.
And we uncover how the government is failing to curb the problem, leading to increased consumer confusion as to exactly what counts as part of our five-a-day under the original intentions of the scheme.
When the campaign was first launched in 2002, the Department of Health specified that fresh produce as well as frozen, tinned, juiced and dried fruit and veg all constituted part of our five-a-day. But these were only guidelines.
It also created an official logo which can only be displayed on foods that don't contain added salt, sugar or fat, but the food industry saw the advantages of promoting its products with a five-a-day message and started to create their own labels with no such restrictions.
Simon Capewell, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Liverpool, says: 'The own brand fruit and veg logos that the different companies have made up are unregulated, they're unrestricted, it's complete open season out there.'
Consequently, the 'one of your five-a-day' message can be seen for example, on a sausage, beans and chips ready-meal because the tomato and bean content add up to the required amount.
And some manufacturers are now using a 'half of your five-a-day' label. But, confusingly, this actually means it contains just half of one, of your five a day, so where there's not enough fruit and vegetables in the product to make up even one of your five-a-day.
Kate Dalmeny, Policy Director at Sustain: 'I've seen plans from individual companies who want to do one-eighth of a portion. If you work that out on the back of an envelope that's 40 products you'd have to eat to get your five-a-day. This is clearly a marketing claim rather than a health benefit.'
As more than half those questioned for Dispatches said they would be more likely to buy a product if it featured a five-a-day label, it's clear that the scheme needs looking at again to make sure the consumer understood what they were buying and, therefore, eating.
As it stands at the moment, the only way to truly know how the fruit and veg content adds up on some composite foods is to write and ask the manufacturer for the recipe, something your average shopper is unlikely to have the time to do.
In 2003, the government proposed an extension of its own tightly controlled scheme to include ready meals, soups and snacks.
But according to Mike Rayner, Department of Public Health at Oxford University, the lengthy talks ended in stalemate partly because of pressure from the food industry.
Simon Capewell adds:
'There's increasing evidence that voluntary agreements between government and industry do not work.
'They're cosy partnerships where industry often come up with pledges which either are things they were going to do anyway or things that are very difficult to monitor or check.'
To make the point of how far the five-a-day message has drifted from the original concept, Dispatches made its own biscuits that, despite containing sugar, salt and fat, were allowed under industry guidelines because of the banana and raisin content.
Each biscuit had a half-covering of chocolate and contained 275 calories, but we were legally able to label the box with our own 'half of your five-a-day' logo, complete with cartoon pictures of a banana and pea pod.
As you will see in the programme, even those who considered themselves educated about food are shocked that a scheme aimed to promote healthy living can be used on products that do anything but.
