WORCESTER mums will be able to take advantage of a scheme to offer fruit, vegetables and cereal instead of free milk.

Pregnant women and mothers, who receive free milk worth £2.80 a week, will be offered the healthy alternative under a new scheme to boost health.

The Government has unveiled plans to shake up the £142m Welfare Food Scheme, which is little changed since its wartime introduction in 1940.

Under the current scheme, hundreds of mothers of under-fives and pregnant women in less well-off parts of Worcestershire and Herefordshire receive tokens every week for seven pints of milk or powdered formula.

Emma Brill, of Essex Close, Dines Green, is the mother of five-year-old Tom and seven-year-old Alison.

"To feed children fruit is a good idea," said the 31-year-old.

Lucy Pearson, who has a seven-year-old called Stephanie and a 10-year-old called Jordan, said although her children were too old to benefit from the new scheme, she thought it was a good idea. "A lot of children aren't getting the vitamins they need in this area," said Mrs Pearson of Drake Avenue, Dines Green.

"My children were eating fruit and vegetables mashed up at the age of six to seven months old.

"If children have proper food then they are not susceptible to colds."

A total of 55,000 pregnant women and 808,000 mothers of under-fives, who are on income support or income based job seekers allowance, are covered by the existing scheme.

The same number would be covered by the new scheme, Healthy Start, but they would be free to choose between milk products and other healthy foods.

But Ministers fear the scheme will fail to give mums or youngsters the nutrition they need and that it will be a disincentive to breast feed.

Hooman Ghalamkari, community pharmacist at DG Pharmacy, Dines Green, welcomed the scheme and said a fruit, vegetable and cereal replacement would encourage breast feeding.

"That would be an incentive," he said. "It will be a clearer message that breast feeding is best because free milk will be stopped."