Mars, Nestlé and Mondelez-owned Cadbury have reportedly offered to reduce the size of their chocolate bars by 20% in order to cut their sugar content to comply with new guidelines from Public Health England aimed at fighting childhood obesity.

According to The Times, the offer was made by the manufacturers following meetings with PHE officials in order to avoid being named and shamed in a report on childhood obesity which is due to be published next month.  The companies have yet to decide whether they will cut prices at the same time.

The 20% reduction is the amount by which the agency is seeking to cut sugar across a wide range of food and drink products by 2020. Whilst other high sugar products such as soft drinks and breakfast cereal can be reformulated using artificial sweeteners, the chocolate makers say doing this ruins the taste of their products.

The targets set by the PHE will come on top of reductions already made by manufacturers and are due to be laid out in the report. The government body has said progress will be measured either in average sugar content per 100g of product, or by reductions in portion sizes.