Coca-Cola has a contract allowing the company to 'quash' findings from health research it funds at universities in North America, a new study reveals.

Through more than 87,000 documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests, researchers at the University of Cambridge identified several clauses in legal documents that provide such a loop hole.

It gives the company early access to scientists' findings and the right to 'terminate [research] without reason' - with the power to seize the data to prevent further study.

The firm has pledged transparent and 'unrestricted' support for science, funding studies that often have great influence in the fields of nutrition, energy and exercise.

But the researchers say the legal clauses they have found mean that Coca-Cola could suppress 'critical health information' - and may have already done so - but there is no way of knowing if so, what, when, to what extent.