A marketing expert who used to help sell products criticised for being high in fat, salt and sugar has been put in charge of the Government's forthcoming campaign to tackle obesity in children.

Chris Holmes, a former marketing executive with Nestle and Kraft, is heading the Department of Health's 'healthy living social marketing team'. He leads a group of civil servants who are drawing up a long-awaited programme of action on obesity that ministers plan to unveil in the spring. The disclosure raises questions about whether the strategy will be tough enough on such firms, and how someone from 'big food' got the job.

It comes as the Government is immersed in a row over whether to ban all advertising of junk food on television before the 9pm watershed.

The DoH said Holmes brought 'both specific technical knowledge and a sound understanding of the UK food chain' to the post.