Policy addressing marketing in restaurants

Kids are eating out more than ever before. Eating out accounts for one-third of children’s daily caloric intake, twice the amount consumed away from home 30 years ago.¹ Children consume almost twice as many calories when they eat a meal at a restaurant compared to a meal at home, and they get more saturated fat and less fiber and calcium than in home-cooked meals.^2,3

Yet, despite the fact that obesity rates have tripled in children over the last two decades,⁴ chain restaurants continue to offer primarily high-calorie meals for children. Children’s menus at the largest chain restaurants are dominated by burgers, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, fries, soft drinks, and other unhealthy options. And when healthier side dish and drink options are available, they typically are not the default, meaning the healthy choice is not the easy choice.

So what can be done? Below are some policy goals that can help improve the nutritional content of food offered at restaurants and the way that food is marketed, especially to children.

• Require restaurants with fewer than 20 outlets to list nutrition information for foods and beverages on menus and menu boards.*
• Require restaurants and other food service establishments on government property to list nutrition information for foods and beverages on menus and menu boards.
• Require restaurants and other food service establishments in hospitals to list nutrition information for foods and beverages on menus and menu boards.
• Set nutrition standards for children’s meals that can include a toy or other incentive item.
• Use zoning policies to limit the number of fast food outlets near schools and other settings frequented by children.

*Policy priority, rated highest for achievability and effectiveness

Learn more

Menu labeling website
Center for Science in the Public Interest. Website includes model policy for chain restaurants and can be adapted to address non-chain restaurants.

Study: Nutritional quality of restaurant children’s meals [pdf]
Center for Science in the Public Interest. Authors Margo G. Wootan, Ameena Batada, and Elizabeth Marchlewicz.

Model ordinance for toy giveaways with children’s restaurant meals [pdf]
National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Fact sheet: Toy giveaways with restaurant children’s meals
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Fact sheet: Restaurant children’s meals: The faults with defaults
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Reducing junk food marketing to children: State and local policy options for advocates and policy makers
Center for Science in the Public Interest

References