Dishing up the truth on our high street restaurants
We've worked with an army of secret diner families to rank children’s food in 28 of the UK’s most popular restaurant chains and supermarket cafes.
The Soil Association’s Out to Lunch campaign has kickstarted a veg revolution on the high street with more than a dozen chains committing to serving two portions of veg with every child’s meal.
Many restaurants are now prioritising child health and investing in healthier and more creative meal options. But even with an increase in fresh vegetables and organic food across the high street in 2019, many chains are serving children unhealthy and unsustainable meals – and 88% of parents are saying that children’s food in high street chains just isn’t good enough.
Who came top?
Restaurants have a big role to play in influencing what children think good food looks like. JD Wetherspoon topped the league table, followed by Ikea and Harvester, with organic and sustainable ingredients and lots of veg on the menu. Marks & Spencer Café serves no veg on the children’s menu, and several chains are offering excessively sugary puddings. Supermarket cafes, which serve millions of meals each year, were included in the league table for the first time and generally scored near the bottom of the table.
View the full league table here.
What next?
Join the Out to Lunch campaign by calling on all restaurant chains and supermarket cafés to take four simple steps to improve the service and food they offer children:
- Serve two portions of veg with every child’s meal
- Make water freely available and stop serving sugary drinks to children
- Serve children’s portions of adult dishes (ensuring they are healthy and nutritionally balanced)
- Use quality ingredients such as free range and organic
