Child food 'poor' at attractions

Standard fare at many attractions

Theme parks, museums and other leading holiday attractions are serving up child meals loaded with sugar, salt and fat, a survey has found.

Local government group LACORS ran the largest ever survey of meals at 220 British leisure facilities.

It said not one of the 397 meals tested fully met guidelines from the School Food Trust.

But the association representing leisure parks, BALPPA, said healthy options were nearly always available.

It's not that difficult to have a few different options so that parents can choose Sue Baic British Dietetic Association

The survey tested 397 meals aimed at seven to 10 year olds from 220 attractions, including wildlife parks, leisure centres, heritage sites and farm parks.

The meals sampled came not only from privately-run tourist sites, but also from council leisure centres and swimming pools.

Chips with everything

Most meals, they said, were served with fried potatoes of some kind or other, and often involved deep-fried meat.

The worst meal they found contained more than 85 grams of fat - three times the maximum recommended by the School Food Trust.

Other meals had six times the advised amount of saturated fat, 500% more protein, or more than three times the recommended level of salt. On average, the meals had 10% too much fat, and 44% more salt than recommended.

While the report acknowledged that menus at tourist attractions tended to offer what children preferred to eat, and what adults wanted to buy, it called for the option of healthier food, the ready availability of drinking water instead of sugary fizzy drinks, and the removal of extra salt provided at the table.

We include a free fruit salad with 100% of our children's meals - although often the parents leave it behind Spokesman Merlin Entertainments

The chairman of LACORS (the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services), Geoffrey Theobald, said: "There are no easy answers but unless action is taken by producers, marketing and advertising companies, and the outlets that sell this food, Britain will continue its slide towards the unwanted title of fat capital of the world."

His comments were backed by British Dietetic Association nutritionist Sue Baic, who carried out her own survey of visitor attraction food a few years ago.

She cited a few examples of attractions, including the Natural History Museum in London, and Cornwall's Eden Project, which did offer healthier food to young and old visitors.

She said: "The report is recommending a few simple things that could make a big difference.

"It's about the messages we send out to parents and children. It's not that difficult to have a few different options so that parents can choose."

However, Colin Dawson, the chief executive of trade association BALPPA, which represents leisure attractions across the UK, said that he "did not recognise" the picture painted by the report.

"Our members have made great efforts in recent years to make sure that there is healthy food available wherever possible.

"Very often, parents will choose something different from the normal eating regime at home on a day out like this, and there is nothing wrong with this."

A spokesman for Merlin Entertainments, which runs many of the UK's biggest attractions, including Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Alton Towers theme parks, said healthy options were always available.

She said: "We include a free fruit salad with 100% of our children's meals - although often the parents leave it behind."