Ice cream giants in 'fat kids' alert

UNILEVER and Allied Domecq have been targeted by American lawyers seeking billions of dollars in damages from fast-food makers in 'fat kids' court cases.

Unilever's Ben & Jerry's and Allied Domecq's Baskin-Robbins ice cream businesses have been warned they will be sued unless they alert consumers to the risk of obesity by eating too much ice cream.

One letter warning of legal action was signed by Professor John Banzhaf of George Washington University Law School and Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, a leading campaigner in the fight against fatty foods.

Banzhaf, a central figure in lawsuits against the tobacco industry, is also leading a number of test cases against McDonald's.

He believes the fast-food company faces a barrage of compensation claims from obese Americans, especially children, if it can be shown that a high-calorie diet of burgers and fries is addictive.

The £12 billion-a-year worldwide ice cream industry has so far rejected calls to display nutritional details of products, describing it as 'too cumbersome'.

But Baskin-Robbins, the world's biggest ice cream chain, has already begun displaying nutritional details of certain products in Canada.

A spokesman for Ben & Jerry's said: 'We are making products available that are low in fat, but most people know that ice cream is an indulgent product to be enjoyed in moderation.'

Institutional investors are becoming increasingly disenchanted with Unilever's much-vaunted 'path to growth' strategy on sales and profits, according to a survey by investment house ABN Amro.

Annual sales growth is likely to average no more than 3.5% - well short of the five per cent-plus target set by chairman Niall FitzGerald in 2000.