UK restaurant chains ripping parents off with ready meals – study

Popular UK restaurant chains may be “misleading or even ripping parents off” by serving ready meals and ultra-processed menus to children, according to a study.

The Soil Association found that meals are “rarely” being prepared and cooked on site using fresh ingredients, with pre-made pasta sauces simply being warmed up at restaurants like Bella Italia, Prezzo and TGI Fridays.

The food and farming charity used secret diners and surveyed restaurant chains directly to compile its annual Out to Lunch league table ranking of menus, finding an “abundance of unhealthy options, excessively sugary desserts, problematic additives, plus ultra-processed and low-welfare meat”.

In the survey sent to chains, the Soil Association asked them to provide information around the extent to which their three most popular meals were freshly prepared.

Except for Wahaca and Carluccio’s, it found that family favourites were typically not being made on site from minimally processed ingredients.

Price was not a barrier to better children’s menus, with high scoring JD Wetherspoon one of the cheapest chains surveyed for serving all of its children’s meals with two portions of vegetables and a fruit option for pudding.

At Wahaca, children’s meals were mostly prepared on site from fresh ingredients while also being cheaper than many chains offering reheated dishes.

At least 40% of 140 protein options – meat, fish and plant-based – across the high street were ultra-processed, according to the Soil Association’s analysis.

Only Wagamama, Nando’s and Leon offered children’s menus that were completely free from both artificially sweetened and added sugar drinks.

Most fruit and vegetables came from abroad, with just one restaurant – Nando’s – reporting using 100% British meat for children’s meals, and KFC and TGI Fridays serving meat from as far away as Thailand and Brazil.

The charity ranked Franco Manca at the bottom of its table, saying the chain failed to serve enough vegetables to children and declined to share details of their sourcing and preparation practices with parents or the Soil Association.

However, a handful of “pioneering” restaurants – including Wahaca and JD Wetherspoon – have pledged to report to the Soil Association on ultra-processed ingredients in their kitchens for the first time.

The two restaurants topped the league table for providing freshly prepared and healthy options for children.

The findings come as Food Standards Agency research finds that ultra-processed food is a leading concern for Britons.

Secret diner Becca Watts, a mother-of-one from Stevenage, said: “I want to go out with my son and have something that’s fresh and healthy.

“Back when I was younger, nearly everything would have been made from scratch but nowadays it’s all packets and you almost feel like you’re being cheated. What happened to home-cooked, fresh meals?

“If we want a pre-made carbonara we can go to the shop and we will have paid less, and that way I could’ve seen all ingredients. I’d rather know what’s going into my son’s food. We don’t know how all these additives are going to impact their health.”

Soil Association senior policy officer Oona Buttafoco said: “Parents want and deserve better – they’ve told us fresh food and healthy, delicious choices are their number one priority when eating out with their kids.

“Restaurant chains are facing significant cost pressures, and we sympathise with the challenges they face, but we’re concerned that some chains may be misleading, or even ripping parents off by essentially serving ready meals. This often isn’t what parents think they are paying for, and it’s concerning when ultra-processed foods are dominating British children’s diets.

“It’s not all bad news though. A handful of chains are doing brilliantly, serving freshly-prepared, responsibly-sourced, healthy and tasty food, as well as providing transparency on ingredient sourcing – and all this at a reasonable price.”

Thomasina Miers, the co-founder of Wahaca, said: “I am immensely proud that Wahaca has topped the Soil Association’s children’s food awards.

“It is great to see cooking from scratch, having free-range chicken and using Riverford organic produce has cut through the noise of chicken nuggets and chips, seen on so many ‘kids’ menus across the country.

“I love that at Wahaca children can build their own tacos and learn how things like citrus makes such a big impact on seasoning. We shall continue working on these menus as we continue working on our main menus because we wholeheartedly believe in bringing up a nation of children who love food and flavour.”

Sarah Shaw, food development manager at JD Wetherspoon, said: “Wetherspoon is proud to have been ranked number two in the Out to Lunch league table, as well as being the leading pub chain.

“We strive to offer children’s meals which are both tasty and nutritious, which is good news for the children as well as their parents.”