A new league table ranking the health of children's food in 21 of the UK's most popular restaurant chains is published today (21 Oct) by the Soil Association's Out to Lunch campaign. Two years since the first league table there have been some significant improvements made by a small number of chains, but the Soil Association, working with an army of parent secret diners, has uncovered continuing widespread poor practice with many restaurants failing to serve fresh food or healthy choices.

• The campaign found restaurants serving potatoes pre-mashed in Holland, fish fingers pre-cooked in Poland, chicken from Thailand and Brazil, cheese from Australia and New Zealand, and a chicken product with 19 additional ingredients produced variously in Kazakhstan, Russia, Vietnam, Argentina, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Ukraine and Slovakia.
• Over half the restaurants give no indication of where their food comes from, and only one chain (Jamie's Italian) could reliably tell parents where their meat comes from.
• 3 chains still offer children free or discounted refills of high calorie sugary drinks as standard (Café Rouge, Frankie & Benny's, Pizza Hut).  Just two fizzy drinks will see a child stack up 17.5 sugar cubes.
• Size of chain does not determine position in the league table. Jamie's Italian (the smallest chain) and Wetherspoons (the second largest chain) are both in the top 5. Strada (the second smallest chain) and KFC (the third largest chain) are both in the bottom 5.

Despite much continuing bad practice, it is clear that a revolution in kids' food on the high street is underway. The league table reveals significant positive changes - 10 chains are serving a portion of veg or salad with every meal (up from 6 chains in 2013) and 9 chains include information on where ingredients come from on the menu (up from 5).

Since launching the campaign in 2013, the Soil Association has been working with participating restaurants to improve children's menus and as a result of the Out to Lunch campaign, over 5.5 million meals1 served to children this year include healthier options. The biggest contributors to these positive changes are larger chains, like Harvester and Prezzo, and also giraffe.

Restaurants have a big role to play in influencing what children think good food looks like – going out used to be seen as a treat, but research2 shows it's more common now with 40% of parents eating out with their kids at least once a fortnight. Meanwhile, 66% of parents say they don't think kids' food in restaurants is good enough2.

Rob Percival from the Soil Association said: “'Our 2015 league table includes big winners and big losers - adults expect to be offered real food and real choices in restaurants and we think children deserve the same. We've found some up-market eateries are designing menus that make healthy eating for children almost impossible, and price is no guarantee of quality - lower cost restaurants are outperforming more expensive chains. Since our first league table Harvester and Prezzo have proved it's possible to make major improvements – we're now calling on other restaurants to raise the bar and give our kids the food they deserve.”

Jamie's Italian topped the table with a great score of 64 out of 80 (up from 50 two years ago), and Prezzo was the biggest climber, moving an impressive 13 places to 6th position. Since 2013 the chain has introduced fresh fruit and an organic fruit lolly for desert, and has prioritised children and family enjoyment with an activity pack that includes activities related to fruit, veg, and healthy eating.

The Soil Association has a new Eating Out Guide for families to help them select which restaurants are best to visit depending on what's important to them. Visit http://www.soilassociation.org/outtolunch/parents to download

The campaign also discovered;

• 12 chains offer a fresh fruit pudding but fail to include it as the default option in the meal deal, promoting instead an array of sugar-laden puddings that will quickly blow a child's daily sugar budget.
• Only at Wagamama is every meal option balanced and only Wagamama provides children's cutlery as standard.  
• The majority of chains are not freshly preparing and cooking the majority of their food in the restaurant.

The Out to Lunch campaign is calling on all high street restaurants, pubs and cafés to take seven simple steps to improve the service and food they offer children:

• Make water freely available and remove sugary drinks from the menu
• Let children choose from the main menu
• Serve a portion of veg with every meal and fruit-based puddings
• Use quality ingredients such as free range and organic
• Provide children's cutlery as standard
• Serve freshly prepared food, not ready meals
• Make breast feeding mums feel welcome

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact:
Natasha Collins Daniel, Press Office Manager: 0117 914 2448/ 07827 925380 – Ncollins-daniel@soilassociation.org
Emily McCoy, Press Officer: 0117 314 5195 – emccoy@soilassociation.org

Notes to editors:

Jamie Oliver said: “I'm incredibly proud that our kids' menu has reached the top spot on the Soil Association's league table for the second time running. Over the last 12 months we've been working really hard to make sure that all the dishes are not only super-tasty and visually fantastic, but are nutritionally balanced, too.

​“We​'ve always believed that the quality of our kids' food should be just as good as it is on the main menu, and I really feel that we deliver just that – dishes that that the kids go mad for, but also that their parents can trust.

“Coming top is a credit to my dedicated team of chefs and nutritionists who work tirelessly to make sure that our menus tick all the boxes. As always, we've kept the dishes really colourful and fun with new dishes, such as my Proper picnic box and Organic mini spaghetti and meatballs.”

Christian Poole of Prezzo said: “At Prezzo we're committed to offering great experiences to children and families. Working alongside the Out to lunch campaign, we're proud to deliver a greatly improved children's menu and are really pleased to be the highest climber in this year's league table. Our new menu includes fresh fruit and organic fruit lollies for pudding, and we provide fun activities based around healthy eating. We have big ambitions for our children's menu, and will continue to innovate to provide tasty, healthy and fresh food for little ones.”

Kate Blincoe, a 'secret diner' parent said: “I really care about what my children eat, but as secret diners they were served up with vegetable-free meals, sugar-laden deserts, and they had to eat with adult cutlery. Overall, there is a lot of work to be done to make eating out with kids healthy and family friendly, and I was particularly shocked by where the meat came from in the restaurants we visited.”

More detail on the Out to Lunch league table 2015
Meal price does not determine where chains are scoring in the league table. The average meal price for eating out with children is £5.61. The top 5 average meal price is £5.55 – below average for the league table. (This includes a main, a drink, a pudding, and sometimes a starter).

Good practice is also possible at scale. Wethersoons is the second largest chain in the league table, serving close to a million children's meals every month – on the menu are MSC sustainable cod, free range eggs, and British farm assured beef.

Over half of restaurants give no indication of where their food comes from.  The campaign has found restaurants serving potatoes pre-mashed in Holland, fish fingers pre-cooked in Poland, chicken from Thailand and Brazil, cheese from Australia and New Zealand and a chicken product with 19 additional ingredients produced variously in Kazakhstan, Russia, Vietnam, Argentina, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Ukraine and Slovakia.

Methodology
The chains were scored against a points system based on school and early years nutrition standards, good practice drawn from the Soil Association's Food for Life Catering Mark (which accredits 1.5 million meals a day in workplaces, restaurants and schools) and 1,000 parents telling us what mattered to them, such as:

• Whether a variety of dishes is offered to children, making healthy eating easier
• Whether food is cooked fresh, meat is traceable and free range eggs and sustainable fish are used
• If children and families are welcomed and high chairs and children's cutlery are available

Chains were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their offering to children, and a team of 60 families visited and reviewed over 80 establishments from the league table.

References

1. Harvester, giraffe, Jamie's Italian, and Prezzo have attributed improvements to their children's offer to the Out to Lunch campaign. Collectively these chains serve around 468,000 children's meals every month – over 5.5 million this year.
2. Representative survey of 1,000 parents conducted by Research Bods on behalf of the Soil Association, February 2013.

The Soil Association was founded in 1946 by farmers, scientists, doctors and nutritionists to promote the connection between the health of the soil, food, animals, people and the environment. Today the Soil Association is the UK's leading membership charity campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use. Its Chief Executive is Helen Browning, and Chair of Trustees is Dennis Overton.

Soil Association Certification is a wholly owned subsidiary with an independent board chaired by Linda Campbell, which certifies over 70% of all organic products sold in the UK. Certifying organic food and farming since 1973, and more recently, organic textiles, health and beauty products, the team has built up extensive practical experience and provides unrivalled support before, during and after certification.  It also audits other schemes within catering and forestry, including the Food for Life Catering Mark, and the FSC and PEFC forestry standards internationally, delivering assurances of quality and provenance that industry and consumers can trust. To find out more visit www.soilassociation.org