Jamie set to cash in on ready meals for children

TV chef’s bid for kid grub trademark

TELLY chef Jamie Oliver wants a slice of the kids’ ready meal market – after his successful campaign to ban Turkey Twizzlers from schools.

He has applied to trademark the name Little Helpers for processed foods like snack bars and frozen chicken dinners.

Jamie, 43, also plans to offer “children’s entertainments services, organising events for entertainment purposes and education”.

His trademark application has been submitted to the Intellectual Property Office. The news comes in the same week that father-of-five Jamie signed a new deal with supermarket giant Tesco.

The chef, paid £10million in 11 years as the face of Sainsbury’s, will create a new series of recipes and tips for Tesco.

Jamie, who has also campaigned for a sugar tax, already runs a business empire spanning recipe books, cooking utensils and restaurants. But in recent years some businesses have had financial woes and last month he revealed he had put £13million of his own money into his Jamie’s Italian chain to stop it going bust.

He is now closing about a third of his restaurants in a rescue plan. Turkey Twizzlers, which contained 34 per Pupil’s energy drink and Monster Munch cent turkey and were bulked up with water, pork fat, rusk and coatings, were banned by schools after Jamie’s Channel 4 series School Dinners highlighted poor nutrition. A spokeswoman for Jamie – hailed a hero last week after tackling an intruder at his North London home – declined to talk about the new venture. Jamie Oliver Enterprises said: “There’s no comment on this.” stephen.hayward@ sundaymirror.co.uk