Food for kids at British theme parks "shockingly" unhealthy

Jul 2 2008

According to a new report food sold to children at popular leisure attractions in Britain contain "overwhelmingly" high levels of fat, salt and sugar.

The report by The Local Government Association (LGA) says the food often contains levels of fat, saturated fat, salt, sugar and protein far in excess of recommended guidelines.

The report is the result of Environmental Health and Trading Standards officers from councils across the UK testing 397 different meals for seven to 10-year-olds at 220 activity centres.

The centres included theme parks, wildlife parks, museums, leisure centres, heritage sites and outdoor farm parks.

The report says none of the meals complied with the School Food Trust (SFT) recommendations for healthier food designed to tackle Britain's growing child obesity problem and even more of a concern some meals showed "shocking" levels of fat, salt and sugar.

According to the report the most unhealthy meals had 300% percent more fat than the accepted limit, containing 85.8 grams compared to the SFT's recommended maximum of 20.6 grams and one meal contained 45.6 grams of saturated fat, 600% more than the SFT's limit of 6.5 grams, others contained 500% more protein and 350% more salt than SFT guidelines recommended.

Theme parks were the worse offenders and contained on average more fat, saturated fat, protein and salt than those sold at wildlife parks, museums, leisure centres, heritage sites and outdoor farm parks.

The LGA has called for such leisure centres to offer the option of healthy meals for children and also wants salt in shakers and sachets to be removed from park restaurants, free drinking water to be offered alongside soft drinks and a reduction in the amount of fried foods on menus.

The report says the stark reality is that none of the 397 meals fully complied with all six requirements of the School Food Trust.

The LGA says school food has significantly changed over the last few years and it is time that the hospitality industry introduced similar changes to ensure that the valuable contribution that these guidelines have made is not undermined outside schools.