Coca-Cola has announced that it is set to remove advertising for its soft drinks from the front of all its vending machines in British secondary schools between now and September.

The global soft drinks giant says its decision was based on its recognition of the conflict between vending machines in schools and classrooms as commercial-free areas.

Coca-Cola has 4,000 vending machines in about 1,500 secondary schools in England, Scotland and Wales and the scheme means pictures of cans of Coca-Cola or Fanta will be replaced with panels showing cartoon children playing with no branding at all.

The company also announced the machines would contain fewer choices of Coca-Cola products and more juice drinks and bottled water.

Commenting on the move, Cathy Stillman-Lowe, an independent oral health promotion expert, said ‘Healthy eating (and drinking) in schools is a serious issue: there is a reciprocal relationship between education and health. Educational attainment plays a key role in determining health status and in breaking the cycle of health inequalities, and healthier children perform better academically. The whole school environment is as important as what is taught in the classroom, and easy access to sweetened or acidic drinks in schools could result in their frequent consumption, with negative impacts on oral and general health. The availability of bottled water in Coca-Cola vending machines is clearly a step in the right direction; even better, every school could make drinking water freely available in an attractive environment (not the toilets) to all pupils, irrespective of whether or not they can afford to buy drinks from the vending machine.’