Text 4 　　Ministers should force food companies to make their products healthier using targets for the amount of fat, salt and sugar they should contain, a coalition of 30 health and food organisations has said. The Obesity Health Alliance is demanding a ban on TV adverts for junk food before the 9pm watershed so fewer children see them. The alliance wants the government to make both policies key elements of its eagerly awaited childhood obesity strategy, which is now due to be unveiled in the summer after being delayed from its planned publication last autumn. 　　Fresh opinion polling shows the majority of voters are worried about the amount of sugar in everyday foodstuffs and want firm action to reduce it.Almost two-thirds (64%) believe the government should do more to reduce the amount of sugar that is added to a wide range of products. Three-quarters (77%) are concerned about high sugar levels, with 42% “very concerned”. 　　The public also backs a clampdown on the marketing of junk food to children, according to the You Gov poll of 1,774 adults interviewed online in January in research funded by Cancer Research UK. Seven in ten (71%) think junk food marketing makes it harder for children to eat healthily, while even more – 78% – want promotion of such products during family-oriented shows such as the X Factor to be reduced in order to limit their exposure. 　　“Alarmingly, some children are consuming as much as three times the maximum recommended amounts of added sugar,” said Prof John Wass, an expert on obesity from the Royal College of Physicians, a member of the alliance calling for a crackdown. “Food and drink manufacturers must be prepared to reduce the amount of sugar and fat in their products. And the fairest way to make this happen is for the government to set targets independent of the food and drink industry,” Wass added. The childhood obesity strategy had been delayed “far too long” and ministers must bring forward proposals to tackle soaring levels of dangerous overweight as a matter of urgency, he said. 　　The Food and Drink Federation, which represents producers, rejected mandatory reformulation as “both unworkable and profoundly undesirable”.Tim Rycroft, its director of corporate affairs, said: “Food and drink companies have a proud record of voluntarily removing salt--and more recently fat and sugar too--from their products. This process must, by necessity, proceed at a speed that consumer tastes allow.”