KFC is blocking councils' attempts to fight rising obesity by challenging their bids to prevent takeaways being opened near schools, the Times reports.
This comes after it was revealed this week the health crisis is costing the UK £100 billion per year, with two-thirds of adults now classed as overweight or obese.
KFC has succeeded in having the policies stopped completely or significantly watered down in 24 of 43 council areas it has challenged.
16 councils have abandoned the plans since 2017, while eight have had to limit the extent of their powers, after the fast-food giant responded to public consultations.
KFC defended their decision to prevent the proposed actions by arguing that the policies have either not been through the proper channels or that there is not a strong enough evidential link between childhood obesity and takeaways close to schools.
Council officials have been trying to limit the number of takeaways and fast-food restaurants close to schools all across the country, but must put new planning policies forward to a public consultation.
These policies are said to have often been challenged by KFC, with an external planning inspector ruling in the chain's favour in half of the cases.
One case is the town of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, where four in ten year six pupils are overweight or obese. The council introduced plans to ban new takeaways within 400 metres of schools claiming that year six pupils living with the highest density of fast-food restaurants had a higher BMI than those with none.
But KFC successfully argued in March that there was not enough evidence to show a link. It said that the proposal was "negative in its assumption that all hot food takeaways offer little choice and serve the same type and standard of food", the Times reports.
A spokesperson for KFC said: "We take our role on high streets and the positive contribution we make in communities across the country extremely seriously and, like many businesses, we take up opportunities to contribute when local authorities seek the views of relevant parties on things like planning policy.
"This is a standard part of the policymaking process to ensure potentially unconsidered impacts on the local area are brought to light. As a part of this routine consultation process, we have offered our concerns on some draft policies which took a broad-brush stroke approach, supported by limited evidence, that would in practice actually mean a ban on opening any new restaurants at all in the local area.
"As a business, we are in fact supportive of the sector taking a responsible approach to schools. For example, we already have self-imposed restrictions on advertising near schools which are stricter than current advertising regulations."
What are the rules with fast-food takeaways and London schools?
In London, a ban on fast-food takeaways opening within 400 metres of schools was put in place in 2017, in an attempt to tackle the capital’s child obesity epidemic.
The Mayor said the move would help deal with the “ticking time bomb” of childhood obesity in London.
Sadiq Khan’s plan states that new takeaways should not be permitted within 400 metres of an existing or proposed primary or secondary school.
Overweight children are more likely to miss school due to illness and to develop type 2 diabetes, heart disease and strokes as adults.
