With lurid names like ‘Candymania’, ‘Malteser Munch Madness’, ‘Mini Chocolate Challenge’ and ‘Triple Treats’ dominating the menus, children’s health comes second as family restaurants promote junk food over healthier options. Chips with almost everything, eat-as-much-as-like ice cream and bottomless fizzy drinks, containing dangerous levels of fat, sugar and salt, are being served up to over 40 million children in the UK each year, new research by the Soil Association and Organix reveals today. In contrast, the research also identified examples of some restaurants and visitor attractions doing great work, offering far healthier, fresh, unprocessed food choices.
A detailed survey of ten popular family restaurants exposes a continuing prevalence of junk being served up as ‘treat food’, despite eating out being a routine weekly event for a quarter of families. Whilst schools are changing their approach to school meals and making excellent efforts to provide fresher, healthier food for children, the UK’s family restaurants are failing to offer a healthy choice to children and parents who want it.
Junk food is still king - this is how the restaurants’ ranked out of a possible 30 points, based on nutrition, food sourcing and provision, food policy and information provision:
TGI Friday’s 1st = 16 points out of 30
Harvester 2nd = 15 points out of 30
Beefeater joint 2nd = 15 points out of 30
Pizza Hut 3rd = 14 points out of 30
Brewers Fayre 4th = 13 points out of 30
Garfunkels joint 5th = 12 points out of 30
Hungry Horse joint 5th = 12 points out of 30
Little Chef 6th = 11 points out of 30
Nando’s 7th = 10 points out of 30
Café Rouge 8th = 8 points out of 30
The full report, containing both surveys, is downloadable at www.soilassociation.org/realmealdeal.
Although TGI Friday’s received the highest score overall, this only showed up the pitiful meal options in the other restaurants. TGI Friday’s average children’s meal still contains over double the school meal maximum saturated fat content. Their burger in a bun with deep fried French fries and baked beans, followed by ‘Malteser Munch Madness’, contains one and a half times a primary school child’s recommended saturated fat intake for a whole day.
Café Rouge, ranked bottom of the league, also wins the booby prize for the least healthiest meal. Its croque monsieur (toasted cheese sandwich) with deep fried French fries, washed down with cola, and followed by ice cream, failed a record 10 out of 14 nutrition standards. The almost complete absence of fruit and vegetables on their children’s menu guaranteed their embarrassing bottom position.
Meanwhile, at Hungry Horse, it’s a ‘candymaniac catastrophe’. This restaurant scoops the prize for highest sugar and salt, with desserts like their monstrous ice cream, chocolate and sweet laden ‘Candymania’. This popular pudding contained four chocolate brownies, chocolate sauce, three scoops of vanilla ice-cream, three scoops of chocolate ice-cream, four strawberries, one bag of white chocolate Minstrel’s, a hand