Thousands of recipes are to be removed from the BBC's website as part of a plan to cut £15m from its online budget and focus on "distinctive public service content".

More than 11,000 online recipes are be dropped, although recipes from television shows will remain online for a 30-day period after broadcast.

The plans will not affect commercial services such as BBC Good Food.

The move follows the publication of the government's White Paper on the future of the BBC.

The corporation had come under criticism for not offering services that were distinct enough from newspapers.

A BBC source said: "What we do has to be high quality, distinctive, and offer genuine public value.

"While our audiences expect us to be online, we have never sought to be all things to all people and the changes being announced will ensure that we are not."

An announcement is expected to made by James Harding, director of BBC news and current affairs, on Tuesday about the future of its online services and news channels.

Anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe announced plans earlier this month to publish the chef's recipes from the website on the blog www.cookingonabootstrap.com.

He said: "I learned to cook on the dole using free recipes online and for the BBC to reduce this vital service is an abomination."