a fit choice? a campaign report on the provision of children’s
TRANSCRIPT
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A fit choice?A campaign report on the provision of children’s food in leisure venues
A British Heart Foundation report prepared by the Food Commission
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1 IntroductIon
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has long campaigned for an environment that makes the healthy choice the easy choice.
This report looks for the first time at food choices on offer in venues where children go to have fun getting active. Childhood obesity has never been higher up the list of public health concerns, with predictions that if current trends continue, by 2050 overweight and obesity will affect nine out of ten adults and two out of three children1. Obese children are more likely to remain obese in adult life2 and in doing so are more susceptible to related illnesses such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and cancer.
If we are to reverse this trend, action is needed to both ensure:
• that children are more active, at least reaching the recommended 60 minutes of exercise a day
• that they are eating a well balanced, healthy diet.
This report demonstrates that these two things are not happening in tandem. There have been initiatives to restrict the marketing of unhealthy food to children, to improve nutrition in schools, and to provide children with opportunities to get active in and out of school. But these have operated in apparent isolation from one another.
This research exercise shows how healthy living messages can be undermined by the lack of nutritious food options available in venues where children go to get active.
1 McPherson, K et al (2007) Tackling Obesities: Future Choices – Project Report, Government Office for Science2 Whitaker, R.C. et al (1997) Predicting obesity in young adulthood from childhood and parental obesity, New England Journal of Medicine; 337: 869–73
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There is no regulatory framework for the provision of children’s food in sport and physical activity centres. However , a number of initiatives in other areas, provide both guidance and impetus for action.
In 2008, the Westminster Government launched Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A cross-government strategy for England. This is the overarching strategy which has governed policy and projects in this area including the Change4Life campaign.
The strategy included a commitment to increase the amount of exercise children do by improving play facilities and school PE provision and to develop a new strategy on community sport. The strategy also proposed a new Healthy Food Code of Good Practice which included a call for:
‘ Information on the nutritional content of food in a wide range of settings (for example, theme parks, visitor attractions, restaurants, take away foods) to be clear, effective and simple to understand.’3
The code also seeks to address the long standing issue of non-broadcast marketing4 of unhealthy foods to children by including a commitment to develop ‘a set of voluntary principles to underpin all forms of marketing and promotion of food and drink to children, particularly where established mandatory self-or co-regulatory regimes do not exist’.
Eating out has been receiving increasing public health attention as 30% of household food expenditure is now spent on food consumed outside the home 5. In 2009, the Food Standards Agency launched a pilot working with caterers and restaurant chains to include calorie labelling on menus or at the point of sale6.
Substantial improvements have been made in the area of school food with the introduction of food based and nutrient based standards. In England, standards are set by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and delivered by the School Food Trust. The food based standards apply to all food served during the school day and include vending machines. Further information about what is included in the standards is detailed in Appendix 2.
While all of these areas are relevant for the aims of this research, they also demonstrate that the provision of healthy food in venues where people go to get active has not featured strongly in policymaking to date. Our research has sought to inform this policy context.
3 Cross-Government Obesity Unit (2008) Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: a Cross-Government Strategy for England, Department of Health and Department of Children, Schools and Families4 This issue is dealt with more fully in the BHF and Children’s Food Campaign (2008) Protecting children from unhealthy food marketing, and BHF (2008) How parents are being misled reports5 The Strategy Unit (2008) Food Matters: Towards a Strategy for the 21st Century; The Cabinet Office6 Food Standards Agency (accessed 03/09/2009) http://www.food.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/2009/jan/nutinfoeatingout
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SettIng the Scene
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VenuesResearchers anonymously visited 35 publicly accessible leisure venues in and around London within a three week period from July 2009 to August 2009. The venues visited comprised of the following places where children engage in sports and active play:
• five bowling alleys• five ice skating facilities• five lidos• ten leisure centres• ten park cafés.
Data collectionData collected from each venue can be summarised as follows:
• food options that were specifically denoted as being ‘for children’ for example ‘children’s menu’, ‘children’s meal deal’
• availability of fresh fruit and vegetables• advertising or branding for example on posters, boards, staff uniforms
• quantity and contents of food vending machines and whether those machines were branded
• snacks at child eye level on café counters• labelling to indicate the nutritional values of the food on offer
• ascertaining whether nutritional information was available on request.
In addition, web and telephone research was conducted to identify:
• whether major leisure facility operators and private companies running the venues visited had healthy eating policies; and
• whether any healthy eating accreditation schemes were available for leisure venues.
Presentation and analysis of the dataThe size and nature of the venues visited varied to the extent of precluding a detailed ranking or scoring system. However, in this report we detail the children’s meal deals that we found and present a nutritional analysis of the food items found most frequently in vending machines in the venues we visited. This study provides a snapshot of the food on offer in venues where children go to get active.
Vending machine contents analysisWe analysed the food items that were found most frequently in vending machines according to the Food Standards Agency’s Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM)7 which categorises foods on the basis of their nutritional content. The model awards points according to the energy, saturated fat, sugar and salt content of products and deducts points for fruit and vegetables, fibre and protein. All of the items that we analysed scored above 4 and are therefore classified as high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS). Products with a score of 4 or greater cannot be marketed to children. More information about how NPM scores are calculated is in Appendix 1.
We have also colour-coded the fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt of the most commonly found products according to the Food Standards Agency’s Multiple Traffic Light system8 which defines:
• a green light as ‘low – a healthier choice’• an amber light as ‘medium – ok most of the time’• a red light as ‘high – just occasionally’.
7 Food Standards Agency (3 April 2009) Guide to using the nutrient profiling model http://www.food.gov.uk/healthiereating/advertisingtochildren/nutlab/nutprofmod 8 Food Standards Agency(accessed 3/9/09) Traffic light labelling http://www.food.gov.uk/foodlabelling/signposting/ 9 2007, FSA http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/frontofpackguidance2.pdf
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Table �— FSA traffic light values for food (per �00g)9
Green (Low)
≤ 3.0 g
≤ 1.5 g
≤ 5.0 g
≤ 0.30 g
Fat
Saturates
Sugars
Salt
Amber (Medium)
> 3.0 to ≤ 20.0 g
> 1.5 to ≤ 5.0 g
> 5.0 to ≤ 15g
> 0.30 to ≤ 1.50g
Red (High)
> 20.0 g
> 5.0 g
> 15.0g
> 1.50 g
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This research found that food served in venues where children go to have fun and get active undermines healthy eating messages designed to combat childhood obesity.
Summary• Children’s meal deals in leisure venues are dominated by chips, nuggets, sausages and burgers.
• The only promotions of healthy eating found in any venue were:
— the Change4Life strapline ‘Eat well, move more, live longer,’ on a poster displayed near a vending machine stocked with HFSS foods
— shelves marked as ‘healthy’ in two vending machines, although our analysis indicates that these were primarily populated with products high in saturated fat, sugar and salt.
• Food choices were dominated by vending machines, often carrying branding for HFSS products. 22 out of 35 venues had vending machines, all of which included items that would not be allowed to be advertised on children’s television10 or sold in school vending machines11.
• No evidence of healthy eating policies was found in any of the venues and no labelling or nutritional information was on display, except for vending machines in two centres which had limited traffic light labelling.
Children’s menus and meal deals21 out of the 35 venues we visited offered regular children’s menus and/or children’s party menus. 17 of those venues had regular children’s menus, of which 13 offered options with chips/fries/curly fries.
The meals that we found most frequently were:
• chicken nuggets and fries• fish fingers and fries• burger and fries• sausage and chips• pizza slice and fries.
Guidelines for food served in schools indicate that no more than two portions of fried food such as chips or chicken nuggets should be served in a single week12. The meals that we found on offer most frequently all contain two portions of such food and would therefore only be allowed once a week in schools.
We found seven meals that included vegetables, however three of these consisted of peas or salad as an option that could be replaced with baked beans, chips or mashed potato, rather than as an integrated part of the meal. The healthy options were directly competing with less healthy choices. Only three included fruit as part of a meal.
Fruit
Fresh fruit was on display at 13 of the 35 venues. Two of the lidos had fresh fruit on display, at one of these this consisted of a single plastic tub of pre-cut fruit, which was the most expensive item on the menu. There was fruit on display or for sale at two of the leisure centres, one of the ice rinks and none of the bowling alleys. Eight park cafés had fruit on display and one café integrated fruit into the menu.
10 Ofcom (2007) Television Advertising of Food and Drink Products to Children: Final Statement, Ofcom11 School Food Trust (2007) A fresh look at vending in schools12 These standards apply to deep-fried and flash-fried food and include oven-baked chips. Further information is at www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
4 whAt we found
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Vending machines: nutritional analysis
We found vending machines in all types of the venues visited. All the machines contained products that would be classed as high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) according to the NPM model (see Appendix 1 for a full explanation of how the model works).
Table � shows the food items that we found most frequently in the vending machines studied. All of these products score more than 4 according to the nutrient profile model (NPM) and would therefore not be allowed to be advertised to children on television. They would also not be allowed to be sold in school vending machines.
* Information taken from company websites or product packaging** Saturated fat figure not available on web or packaging, only fat given on packaging and only carbohydrate listed on packaging not sugar
13 A BHF calculation based on the Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking guide and nutritional analysis of food items found in leisure venues during our research
Table � — Top �� products found on sale in vending machines with total fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt values per �00g*. Traffic light analysis with nutrient profiling model scores.
Product
Yorkie bar (original)
Snickers
Twix
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
Kit Kat (original)
Kit Kat Chunky (original)
Mini Cheddars (original)
Galaxy Minstrels
Peanut M&Ms
Mars Bar
Skittles (original)**
Starburst (original)
Quavers
Hula Hoops – BBQ beef
Fruit Pastilles
Golden Wonder – Ready Salted
McCoys – Flame Grilled Steak
Wheat Crunchies – bacon
Golden Wonder – Cheese & Onion
Doritos – Cool Original
Walkers – Ready Salted
Salt
0.25
0.51
0.43
0.23
0.25
0.25
2.5
0.2
0.13
0.43
0
0.03
2.69
2.25
0.25
2
1.5
2
2
1.91
1
Sugar
56.7
45
49.2
56.7
48.7
49.3
4.6
69.6
52.4
58.8
90.5
61.2
5
0.9
57.1
0.7
2.3
2.8
2.5
4
0.4
Total fat (g)
31.5
28.4
23.7
29.8
25.9
26.4
29.8
22
26.8
17.6
4.2
7.4
30
28.5
0
32.5
30.7
25.1
31.5
27
34.1
Saturated fat (g)
20.2
11.1
13.5
18.5
14.4
15
11.9
12.8
11
10
4.2
4
2.5
2.6
0
3.9
6.1
3.7
3.7
2.5
2.8
NPM score
27
26
26
26
25
25
25
25
24
24
19
18
18
16
15
14
14
14
13
13
12
The average calorie content of the top food items available in vending machines in the venues we visited was 203Kcals. In order to use up these calories, a 7 year old would need to do 88 minutes of swimming and an 11 year old would need to do 44 minutes of football.13
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Marketing
Food was marketed in a variety of ways across the venues visited, including ways that are not permitted in schools such as HFSS product branding on vending machines (see Table 3).
HFSS food branding was regularly sited alongside healthy living messages. For example, two of the leisure centres we visited had posters and large banners advertising the Change4Life campaign. One of the posters included the Change4Life strap line: “eat well, move more, live longer”, along with the question “Hands up who wants our kids to live longer?” These posters and banners were displayed in close proximity to vending machines selling HFSS food products.
change4Life
Change4Life is the £75 million social marketing campaign launched by the Department of Health in January 2009. It is a joint project by health and education professionals, industry and the voluntary sector. The campaign is aimed primarily at families, who are encouraged to take measures to ensure a longer life including “sugar swaps,” cutting back on snacks, cutting back on fat, eating 5 a day and taking 60 active minutes a day.
www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/
Table � — Marketing techniques used to promote less healthy foods
Number of venues where found
3
21
19
15
1
Marketing technique
Posters
Vending machines displaying HFSS foods for sale
Vending machines with HFSS branding
Displays of unhealthy food
Staff branding
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Nutritional information available to consumers
We found virtually no nutritional information or labelling to help consumers make healthy food choices.
Two leisure centres had vending machines with a small panel at the bottom showing the traffic light values of the products in the machine. However, values were not given per 100g and the information was written in small script and hard to read. Two leisure centre vending machines had shelves labelled as a “healthy shelf,” although, as Table 4 shows a traffic light analysis indicates that each product scores at least one red light. Where healthy choices were available these were not highlighted. None of the venues with cafés displayed information relating to calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar or salt content of the food and nor was this information available on request.
Product
Traidcraft Apricot Geobar
Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Strawberry
Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Blueberry
Divine orange chocolate bar
Alpen bar
Fat (g)
9.3
8
8
31.4
10.7
Saturated fat (g)
6.8
3
3
19.8
6.2
Sugar (g)
57.7
33
33
56.4
35.4
Salt (g)
0.125
0.75
0.75
0.17
0.28
Nutrition information for consumers eating out of home
In January 2009, the Food Standards Agency launched the first phase of work to introduce nutrition information in a number of catering outlets. A range of companies are acting as early adopters to include calorie information on menus and other materials at the point of sale. Restaurant, pub, sandwich and coffee shop chains are taking part in the pilot.
www.food.gov.uk/newspressreleases/ 2009/jan/nutinfoeatingout
Table � — Traffic light analysis* of products on the “healthy shelf” in two leisure centres
* Information taken from company websites and from product packaging
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Industry practice
We carried out additional web and telephone research to establish whether the venues, or their parent organisations, a mix of publicly and privately owned facilities, had healthy eating policies.
None of the companies we spoke to had formal healthy eating policies or schemes. There was little attempt to link the physical activity opportunities they were promoting and healthy eating.
One leisure company offered visitors to their website tips on healthy eating and advertised MEND programmes, a 10 week after school sports and activity programme for children that includes demonstrations about healthy food. One bowling company offers schools packs that promote bowling as exercise yet HFSS foods were heavily promoted at the centre run by the company we visited.
Another leisure company told researchers that they had introduced traffic light labelling in 2006 on menus in cafés in all centres, and that all vending machines in those centres contained School Food Trust approved healthy choices alongside HFSS products. This did not apply, however, in centres where they had subcontracted the catering.
Some leisure companies indicated that vending machines dispensing HFSS foods were helpful in terms of gaining income. One company said that they had tried vending machines stocked with all School Food Trust approved healthy options but that anecdotal evidence had suggested slower sales. Another company told us that it had asked vending machine operators to provide ‘healthy options,’ although we found vending machines filled with an array of HFSS foods when we visited centres run by the company.
None of the local authorities researchers spoke to had formal policies in place that required the provision of healthy choices. One authority said that there were healthy choices available in the leisure centres it ran and another said it was in favour of encouraging the provision of healthy choices. The venues run by these local authorities had HFSS foods on offer.
Accreditation schemes
There are a number of schemes that sport and leisure providers can apply for.
Quest is a UK-wide accreditation schemefor sport and leisure facilities run on behalf of Sport England by an external consultancy. Provision of healthy options through either cafés or vending machines is not a requirement for Quest accreditation.
The Active accreditation scheme14 invites organisations such as primary care trusts, education institutions, local authority leisure providers, private companies and local health partnerships to apply for accreditation. Participating venues are encouraged to demonstrate that they are promoting healthier catering practices, although they would not be excluded from the scheme if they do not achieve this.
The Food Standards Agency is developing a Healthier Food Mark to show where healthier, more sustainable food is available in the public sector. The mark is designed to recognise caterers that provide healthy, nutritious food to staff and service users and is being piloted on a voluntary basis in central and local government. There are not currently any public sector leisure agencies taking part in the scheme15.
The Healthy Living Award is run by Consumer Focus Scotland and is an accreditation scheme aimed at supporting and promoting healthy eating at any type of venue16. Venues taking part in the Scottish scheme include a bowling alley, sports facilities and park cafés. Sport Scotland is a supporter and has secured the award for its two national centres.
14 Active (April 2008) Active – the ISPAL Health and Physical Activity Recognition Programme Guidance Pack, Issue Three: Quality Leisure Management Ltd & The Institute for Sport, Parks and Leisure http://www.qlmconsulting.co.uk/images/stories/pdf/ispalactive_engguidepack_0804_issue04.pdf
15 The Strategy Unit (2008) Food Matters: Towards a Strategy for the 21st century, The Cabinet Office16 www.healthylivingaward.co.uk
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If we are to be successful in our ambition to reverse current trends in the growth of childhood obesity, concerted and joined up action is needed on both nutrition and physical activity.
This report demonstrates that the quality of, and information about, food in leisure facilities is an area that has been overlooked. This is despite progress in schools, work places, prisons and some private sector restaurants and caterers.
Healthy options were simply not widely available and where they were, there was nothing to mark them out as such. This is a missed opportunity to increase public awareness of the importance of both physical activity and healthy eating, and to ensure that children who are physically active are able to make other healthy choices.
Furthermore, less healthy foods are being promoted in such a way as to undermine healthy eating and exercise campaigns such as Change4Life. Progress made by restrictions on marketing of HFSS foods to children and nutritional guidelines for the food available in schools cannot achieve its full potential while such anomalies remain.
While some of the measures needed may require political will and resources to implement, it is clear that we need bold and concerted action if we are to reverse the trend of childhood obesity, and protect future generations from chronic ill-health. The British Heart Foundation proposes the following:
� More cross-government action is needed to ensure that physical activity and healthy eating are linked. The Change4Life campaign in England presents a real opportunity to join up initiatives for example, by requiring healthy food options to be available in venues participating in Swim4Life initiatives.
� Vending machines in publicly owned facilities should be stocked with products that fit the School Food Trust criteria17, in the absence of criteria designed specifically for leisure venues (see Appendix 2). This should be reflected in contracting and procurement policies.
� There is an opportunity for private companies running venues where children can have fun getting active to take a lead in ensuring that healthy food is available and easy to identify. The School Food Trust criteria could be adopted as best practice by industry bodies.
� The ‘Healthier Food Mark’ scheme should be extended to include all types of venues including those we looked at for this report. Lessons should be taken from the successful Scottish Healthy Living Award.
� The Department of Health in England’s Healthy Food Code of Good Practice, which includes a commitment to rebalance all forms of food marketing and promotion aimed at children, must also address the promotion of less healthy foods in publicly owned leisure facilities frequented by children.
� The Food Standards Agency should seek to ensure that leisure venues operated by private and public sector agencies are included in future labelling initiatives for food eaten outside the home. Clear and consistent information for consumers is vital to empowering them to make healthy choices and genuinely understand the nutritional content of the food choices on offer.
17 School Food Trust (2007) A fresh look at vending in schools; http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/UploadDocs/Library/Documents/sft_fresh_look_vending_revised.pdf
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There are three steps to working out the overall score for the food or drink:
�. Work out total ‘A’ points
A maximum of ten points can be awarded for each nutrient.
Total ‘A’ points = (points for energy) + (points for saturated fat) + (points for sugars) + (points for sodium)
If a food or drink scores 11 or more ‘A’ points then it cannot score points for protein unless it also scores 5 points for fruit, vegetables and nuts.
Appendix 1 the nutrIent profILIng modeL
Guide to using the nutrient profiling model18
A nutrient profiling model has been developed by the Food Standards Agency as a tool for categorising foods on the basis of their nutrient content.
This model is what is known as a ‘simple scoring’ system, where points are allocated on the basis of the nutritional content in 100g of a food or drink.
Points
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Energy (kJ)
≤ 335
>335
>670
>1005
>1340
>1675
>2010
>2345
>2680
>3015
>3350
Saturated fat (g)
≤ 1
>1
>2
>3
>4
>5
>6
>7
>8
>9
>10
Total Sugar (g)
≤ 4.5
>4.5
>9
>13.5
>18
>22.5
>27
>31
>36
>40
>45
Sodium (mg)
≤ 90
>90
>180
>270
>360
>450
>540
>630
>720
>810
>900
The following table indicates the points scored, depending on the content of each nutrient in �00g of the food:
18 http://www.food.gov.uk/healthiereating/advertisingtochildren/nutlab/nutprofmod
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�. Work out overall score
If a food scores less than 11 ‘A’ points then the overall score is calculated as follows:
Overall score = (total ‘A’ points) minus (total ‘C’ points)
If a food scores 11 or more ‘A’ points but scores 5 points for fruit, vegetables and nuts then the overall score is calculated as follows:
Overall score = (total ‘A’ points) minus (total ‘C’ points)
If a food scores 11 or more ‘A’ points but also scores less than 5 points for fruit, vegetables and nuts then the overall score is calculated as follows:
Overall score = (total ‘A’ points) minus (fibre points + fruit, vegetables and nuts points only) [i.e. not allowed to score points for protein]
A food is classified as ‘less healthy’ where it scores 4 points or more.
A drink is classified as ‘less healthy’ where it scores 1 point or more.
�. Work out total ‘C’ points
A maximum of five points can be awarded for each nutrient/food component.
Total ‘C’ points = (points for fruit, vegetables & nut content) + (points for fibre [either NSP or AOAC]) + (points for protein)
Points
0
1
2
3
4
5*
Fruit, veg & nuts (%)
≤ 40
>40
>60
–
–
>80
NSP Fibre’ (g)
≤ 0.7
>0.7
>1.4
>2.1
>2.8
>3.5
Or AOAC Fibre’ (g)
≤ 0.9
>0.9
>1.9
>2.8
>3.7
>4.7
Protein (g)
≤ 1.6
>1.6
>3.2
>4.8
>6.4
>8.0
The following table indicates the points scored, depending on the content of each nutrient/food component in �00g of the food:
* If a food or drink scores 5 points for fruit, vegetables & nuts the ‘A’ nutrient cut-off no longer applies.
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Appendix 2 SchooL food truSt guIdeLIneS
The School Food Trust was established by the Department for Education and Skills in September 2005. Its remit is to transform school food and food skills, promote the education and health of children and young people and improve the quality of food in schools.
• Combinations of dried fruit, nuts and seeds without added fat, sugar, salt or honey
• Plain popcorn (no added fat,sugar, salt or honey)
• Fruit, nut and seed bars that contain no added fat, sugar, salt or honey
• At least one serving of fruit and one serving of vegetables or salad every day
• Oily fish such as mackerel or salmon at least every three weeks
• Bread with no added fat or oil every day
• Nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit with no added salt, sugar or fat
• Savoury crackers and breadsticks can be provided at lunchtime as part of a meal when served with fruit, vegetables or dairy food
• Condiments in sachets or individual portions of not more than 10g or 1 teaspoonful
• Any type of confectionery, eg chocolate products, sweets and sugar free chewing gum
• Cereal bars
• Processed fruit bars
• Crisps and crisp-like products,
• Japanese rice crackers
• Pretzels
• Bombay mix
• Nuts with added fat, sugar, salt or honey
• Confectionery such as chocolate bars, chocolate-coated biscuits and sweets
• Salt at lunch tables or at service counters.
• No more than two deep-fried foods, such as chips and batter-coated products, in a single week.
• A meat product from each of the four groups below may be provided no more than once per fortnight: 1) burger, hamburger, chopped meat, corned meat; 2) sausage, sausage meat, link, chipolata, luncheon meat; 3) individual meat pie, meat pudding, Melton Mowbray pie, game pie, Scottish pie, pasty 4) any other shaped or coated meat product
The information in the table below details foods that are and are not permitted to be sold in vending machines in schools and served at lunchtimes. This information is also available at www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
Vending machines
School lunches
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This report represents the first time that children’s food provision has been explored within venues associated with sport and physical activity. Some previous studies have looked at children’s food available out of home and school in various settings.
In 2004, London Metropolitan University surveyed leisure centres, soft play centres, visitor attractions, retail outlets and family restaurants and found predominantly meals high in fat, saturated fat and calories, whilst healthy options were scarce19.
In 2006 the Soil Association & children’s food company Organix published a report on children’s food provision at top tourist attractions20. The report found that hotdogs, burgers and chips dominated the choice on offer whilst it was difficult to find a portion of fruit or vegetables.
A follow up report Not what the doctor ordered21 looked at provision of food in hospitals and sports centres and found that healthy choices were severely limited whilst unhealthy food was being sold extensively.
In 2008 the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services22 collected samples of children’s meals from 220 leisure centres, theme parks, wildlife parks, heritage sites, farm parks and museums in England and Wales. Not one of the 397 meals sampled complied with the School Food Trust’s nutrient based standards for school meals and therefore would not have been allowed to be sold in a school.
19 Seeley, A (2004), Children’s menus flunk nutrition standards, The Food Magazine: Issue 66)20 Collins, J. Chambers, L. & Noble, E. (2006) Taking our children for a ride: Soil Association in partnership with Organix21 Kidd, M & Noble, E (2007) Not what the doctor ordered: How junk food in hospitals and sports centres is undermining the drive for healthier living:
Soil Association in partnership with Organix22 LACORS (June 2008) Coordinated Food Standards Surveys – Study 8: Children’s Meals from Leisure Centres and Tourist Attractions: LACORS:
http://www.lacors.gov.uk/lacors/ContentDetails.aspx?authCode=71F04D&id=19702
Appendix 3 prevIouS StudIeS
The BHF provides a range of resources for parents including tips for healthy snacks and packed lunches and ideas to help children reach their recommended 60 minutes of exercise every day.
Children and young people can log on to our websites for more information about all aspects of a heart healthy lifestyle. www.cbhf.net is aimed at under –11s and www.yheart.net and www.yoobot.co.uk are aimed at over–11s.
Further information, including our Get kids on the go and Guide to food labelling leaflets are available at bhf.org.uk or by calling our Heart Helpline on 0�00 ��0 ����.
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BeatingHEARTdiseasetogether
British Heart FoundationGreater London House 180 Hampstead RoadLondon NW1 7AWPhone: 020 7554 0000Fax: 020 7554 0100Website: bhf.org.uk
The British Heart Foundation is the nation’s heart charity, dedicated to saving lives through our pioneering research, patient care, campaigning and vital information to keep more hearts beating.