Marketing fast food to kidsFast food chains investigated

Fast food 'traffic light' labels

One branch of Burger King trialled showing calorie information on menus

The three leading fast food chains – McDonalds, KFC and Burger King – have reformulated many of their food items to reduce the fat, sat fat, sugar and salt. Under the traffic light labelling system, the nutritional content of almost all items from the McDonalds, KFC and Burger King children’s meals are rated ‘green’ and ‘amber’, so are low or medium in nutrients such as salt and fat.

The exceptions are McDonald’s milkshake, which is high in sugar so is rated ‘red’, and KFC’s Kids Minifillet Burger and Kids Popcorn, which are both rated ‘red’ for salt.

This is certainly a positive step but, as our findings show, most children are still eating too many calories and too much fat, sat fat, sugar and salt when they visit fast food restaurants – particularly if they’re choosing adult meals. 

Nutritional labelling

The lack of signposting or nutrition labelling makes it difficult for people to see how much they’re eating. One branch of Burger King has been involved in the Food Standards Agency Pilot of Nutritional Labelling When Eating Out, which shows calorie information on menu boards and allows consumers to make informed choices. We want to see this applied more broadly and in other chains.

Healthier options at fast food outlets

Only a small percentage of children choose healthy fast food options

You can buy healthy items such as fruit, vegetables, milk and water in most fast food chains, but only a small percentage of children are choosing these options and many are instead opting for foods and drinks high in calories, fat, sugar and salt. 

There’s no harm in eating fast food as an occasional treat – problems arise when these foods are eaten on a regular basis and when children eat a ‘meal’ as a snack and then continue to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Which? says

It’s really positive that fast food chains have reformulated their products to reduce fat, sat fat, sugar and salt content and introduced healthier choices. Which? wants to see this trend continue.

However, our research has shown that children are still consuming large amounts of fat, sat fat, sugar, salt and calories from fast food. Which? wants these chains to join the FSA scheme to provide nutritional information at the point of choice so consumers know exactly what they’re eating.

Advertising fast food to children

38% of 8 to 11s said McDonalds was their favourite fast food chain because of the toys/Happy Meals

KFC restricts its advertising for children and is the only chain in this study not to offer a toy with children’s meals.

When we visited outlets of the chains, the Burger King and McDonalds children’s meals had tie-ins to children’s blockbuster films with related toys included. McDonalds also had a display showing the range of collectibles for one film promotion.

At the time of our research, Burger King was promoting Star Trek, Transformers 2 and GI Joe, all films rated 12A and more appealing to a teenage audience. McDonalds was promoting PG films aimed at a younger audience, namely Monsters vs Aliens, Night at the Museum 2 and Ice Age 3.

In our survey, 38% of 8 to 11s told us that McDonalds was their favourite fast food chain because of the toys/Happy Meals. Our concerns are that these techniques could lead to children pestering their parents to take them to these restaurants regularly so they can collect the full range of toys and, as our research shows, result in them regularly consuming large proportions of their GDAs.

Our research

In April 2009, we visited outlets of the three leading fast food chains – McDonalds, KFC and Burger King – and looked at marketing techniques and advertising that would appeal to children. We also bought a selection of the children’s and adult meals available at each chain and assessed them for nutritional content using information supplied by the companies.