As part of the organisation’s Out to Lunch campaign, it sent secret diner parents to top attractions across the country, with only 5% claiming that the food on offer for kids is good enough.
Major findings include:
- Attractions are serving unhealthy pre-packed lunchboxes with dodgy ingredients and lack of vegetables
- Attractions use promotional deals to push unhealthy food on families
- Attractions are not being honest with parents about where children’s food comes from
- They are failing to support British farmers.
- Attractions are serving over-sized children’s puddings loaded with sugar
- Children’s meals at the top five attractions are on average 5p cheaper than those at the bottom five
Although chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Canteen at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo offered the healthiest restaurant menu - with two portions of veg included with every child and adult meal – it was Royal Botanic Gardens (Edinburgh) who topped the league table. With the help of its catering partner Sodexo Prestige Venues & Events Making, all meals served at the two cafes and restaurant are made fresh on site, using seasonal and organic produce from its own market garden, ensures all meat and fish is MCS certified, and that all meat is sourced from within Scotland.
Fraser Sharp, general manager for Sodexo Prestige Venues & Events at The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have been recognised by our customers in this league table. The team has worked extremely hard over the past few years to deliver the market garden and to ensure that we are able to design seasonal recipes that suit the produce year-round.
“Our chefs constantly strive to create new and exciting menus using the vast array of local vegetables and farm assured meat and fish that we have at our disposal. It is extremely rewarding for everyone in the team to see that their efforts have been acknowledged by so many customers.”
Fearnley-Whittingstall commented: “The point of River Cottage’s collaboration with Whipsnade is to show that food that’s a treat for the whole family can still be healthy, vibrant and bursting with veg.
“Our kids’ menu ensures that our young diners get at least two portions of fresh veg, which is really important to us.
“Of course, we don’t see it as ‘job done’. We’re devising new dishes all the time and hope to make our menu even healthier and 'veggier’.”
According to the Soil Association, other notable venues include the Science Museum (fifth place) for opening a fully vegetarian café; while The British Museum (eighth) and Natural History Museum (11th) have climbed 10 and nine places since 2016 respectively.
The top five venues of the 2018 Visitor Attraction League Table are:
- Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (Sodexo Prestige Venues & Events)
- Eden Project
- Chester Zoo (in-house catering)
- ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
- Science Museum
The bottom five are:
- MAC Birmingham
- National Gallery
- Stonehenge
- Legoland
- Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
At the National Gallery, whose catering partner is Peyton and Byrne, children’s meals did not include any vegetables - despite the adult menu offering more than a dozen types.
Only two sites in the whole survey – the Science Museum and British Museum - include a portion of veg or salad in every child’s lunchbox.
Rob Percival, Out to Lunch campaign coordinator, commented: “It’s unacceptable that popular attractions are denying children healthy choices.
“The attractions at the top of the league table are showing that healthy and high-quality food can be fun and affordable. The attractions at the bottom are not giving families the opportunity to enjoy a balanced meal.
Commenting on the food on offer at Legoland, who came in joint last position and offer children ‘all inclusive’ refillable fizzy drinks with entrance tickets, Percival said: “Some of the food on offer is simply junk. Legoland should be re-named ‘Deep Fried Crap Land’.”
The ticket also entitles kids to lunch at one of its two restaurants, both which offer children burgers, fried chicken and chips but neither with any veg, even though it is offered on the adult menu.
The survey also found:
- Attractions fail to give an honest account of food served to kids – the restaurant manager at London Zoo told diners that children’s chicken nuggets were all made with Halal meat, even though this isn’t stated on the menu
- Attractions continue to serve over-sized puddings and cakes - a child’s ice cream sundae at the National History Museum has 63g of sugar – more than triple a child’s daily sugar allowance
- British attractions could be doing more to support British farmers – some currently serve cabbage and green beans from Greece and Kenya; chicken from Brazil and Poland; and fish fingers shipped from Russia
- Children’s meals are often not freshly prepared – some chicken nuggets are pre-cooked in Thailand and potatoes pre-mashed in Europe and spooned from a bag
- Parents found it difficult to find free drinking water. At Legoland, the ‘Hydration Station’ marked on the map offered refillable fizzy drinks but no free drinking water
- Only five attractions serve higher welfare meat
The full league table can be viewed online at https://www.soilassociation.org/our-campaigns/outtolunch/visitor-attractions-league-table/.