Sir Adrian Cadbury, former chairman of the family drinks and chocolate group Cadbury-Schweppes, has complained that his firm is being made a 'scapegoat' for Britain's obesity epidemic.

Society as a whole should accept responsibility for its expanding waistlines, said Cadbury, 75, who insisted that blaming food companies for the problem was masking the real causes.

In an interview in the Birmingham Post, he said: 'Scapegoat is probably the right word because I do not feel our company is responsible in any way for these problems.'

Cadbury-Schweppes, along with other high-profile food manufacturers, has been consistently blamed for encouraging both youngsters and adults to eat snacks that campaigners say are contributing to Britons becoming more obese.

Obesity is now five times the level it was 25 years ago. The aggressive marketing tactics employed by big companies have been held up as an important reason for the problem.

However, Cadbury said such assertions ignored the facts and that their products had stayed the same during a period when obesity has increased dramatically. 'Consumption of Cadbury's has remained pretty steady over the years. We have certainly not changed our ingredients either on any sort of scale that would contribute to the problem.'

Cadbury-Schweppes has been involved in several rows over obesity, in particular a promotion that offered sports equipment for schools if pupils ate thousands of chocolate bars.

Earlier this summer, MPs told food companies to stop television advertising of junk food aimed at youngsters. Their plea followed a call for a ban on all food advertising aimed at children. Experts have warned that a generation of overweight children could be outlived by their parents. One medical expert even said Britain's most obese children were 'choking on their own fat'.

Tesco is among those to have recently announced plans to implement a traffic-light labelling system, with red for high-calorie foods.