The Consumer's Central of the German state Nordrhein-Westfalen looked at the menus of 51 children's menus in restaurants, fast food chains and shops. The emphasis was on balanced and fresh ingredients.
And omelette with vegetables, a small salad with bread or tomato soup are simple, tasty and healthy dishes that children often like to eat. But when parents want to eat outside the house with their children, balanced meals like these are hard to find for children. "Instead of fresh fruits and vegetables, a children's menu in restaurants and shops generally offer fried or breaded food. The healthy ingredients that the menus for grown ups contain, children will maybe get when asked for," criticises Klaus Müller, manager of the Consumers Central NRW. Of all the children's menus investigated by the Consumer's Central, none were to be one hundred percent recommended based on nutrients.
Out of the tested children's menus 28 - or more than every other menu - was judged as just plain bad by the testers. "To fatty, too many calories and not enough fresh food," was the final judgement. Especially chips are popular in children's menu's. 60 percent of the menu's contained chips, as a side, or as a main meal. The chips are often accompanied by calorific products in all variations: ketchup, mayonnaise, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, fish fingers and mini schnitzels. Nuggets or schnitzels that, when raw, contain proteins, are easy to digest and low in fat, usually end up on a child's plate breadcrumbed or fried. Fresh food in the shape of salad or other vegetables was only on six of the tested menu's - and vegetables took the place of chips in three of the cases. Only in two out of these six menus the healthy portion of vegetables can be assembled by yourself.
