Six pub restaurant chains have opted to reduce their use of salt and saturated fat in a bid to help the government tackle growing obesity levels by offering customers healthier meal options.

Wetherspoons, Greene King and Marston's Inns & Tavern, as well as pubs run by Mitchells & Butlers, the Spirit Group and Whitbread, will be working with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to implement these changes. Each company will introduce various projects to help reduce customers' salt and saturated fat intake, and will be subject to progress reviews every six months by the FSA.

Projects include working with suppliers to reduce salt and saturated fat levels, and the removal of trans fats; developing long-term plans for making menu options healthier; improved training for kitchen and serving staff on nutrition and healthy cooking practises; and offering healthier sauces and dressings. Other schemes include offering more menu choice, with new healthier options, a wider range of alternatives to chips, increasing the amount of vegetables served with meals, reducing the number of fried dishes avaliable, and even pricing healthy options below their other meals.

Rosemary Hignett, head of nutrition at the FSA, said: "Pubs have always been popular places for couples and families to eat out together. We're delighted that these pubs have decided to work alongside us, because it shows that caterers can make some really positive changes without taking the pleasure out of a special occasion. "These new commitments build on a lot of good work that has been under way for some time, and we are sure that other pub restaurant chains will see what is happening and want to get involved too."

In November, Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, Wimpy, Subway and Nandos, which between them serve around 3 million customers every day, joined the scheme.