Food companies who signed up to the Government’s flagship ‘healthy eating’ pledge have failed to reduce the amount of sugar in some of their best-known brands. The sugar and overall calorie levels in products such as Coca-Cola and Magnum ice creams have remained the same despite their manufacturers promising to help customers to ‘eat and drink fewer calories’. Instead, the companies have reduced sugar in lesser-known products. MPs and campaigners said it showed that the calorie pledge in the Government’s Responsibility Deal, under which food manufacturers pledged to encourage healthier eating, was failing. They called on ministers to introduce specific sugar reduction targets, similar to those in place for salt, to tackle rising levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and Action on Sugar's science director, said the findings suggested food firms were simply paying ‘lip service’ to the Government by signing up to the calorie pledge.