Coca-Cola has made contributions of lb20,681 between 2012 and 2013, and has retweeted Sense About Science's claims about the safety of processed sugars.

This year, the charity produced a 'position paper', Making Sense of Allergies, in which it said that health concerns about processed sugars in fast foods and drinks were a "red herring".

The charity's social media team also sent a Twitter message to restaurant owner John Vincent after he had written in a newspaper column that an academic had linked sugar to cancer. In its Tweet, Sense About Science said that sugar "does not create or fuel cancer."

The tweet and the comment in its position paper were retweeted by Coca-Cola's chief science officer Rhona Applebaum. Ms Applebaum has also attended a Sense About Science meeting in the US.

Mr Vincent said later: "It's really worrying the extent to which companies like Coca-Cola can fund organisations that the public might otherwise think are independent."

Coca-Cola is currently running a major dis-information campaign that claims that the obesity epidemic is caused by a lack of exercise, and not sugary drinks.

(Source: The Times, October 10, 2015)