Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Following in the footsteps of its fast food rivals, Burger King has taken soft drinks off of their kids’ menu, according to various media reports published earlier this week.
The Florida-based restaurant chain told USA Today that the beverages were actually removed last month “as a part of our ongoing effort to offer our guests options that match lifestyle needs.” Wendy’s and McDonald’s also recently announced similar moves, the newspaper noted.
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Currently, only fat-free milk, low-fat chocolate milk, and 100-percent apple juice are listed as drink options for children. Coca-Cola and other carbonated beverages can still be ordered at the restaurants, but they will no longer the advertised on the kids’ menu, Time added.
Offering healthier, higher-quality products
The move comes as fast food restaurants face increasing pressure from consumer activist groups and customers to offer healthier, higher-quality products. Last week, McDonald’s announced that it would phase out the use of human antibiotics in its chicken supply over the next two years, and Dunkin’ Donuts agreed to stop the use of a whitening agent in its powdered sugar.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than one-third of all American children and adolescents were obese in 2012, according to Time, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that sugary drinks are one of the main reasons why.
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The group’s director of nutrition policy, Margo Wootan, told USA Today that it had been asking BK to pull soft drinks from kids’ menus for nearly two years, and that it would “help children eat better now, as soda is the leading source of calories in children’s diets. It also helps to set kids on a path toward healthier eating in the future, with fewer kids becoming conditioned to think that soda should be a part of every eating out occasion.”
Alex Macedo, president of Burger King North America, told the newspaper via email that the change was not immediately announced so that restaurant locations would have a chance to make changes to their menu. In 2011, BK started offering “apple fries,” apples cut to resemble French fried, as one way to make their kids’ meals healthier, noted Syracuse.com.
Dropping fountain drinks like it’s hot
McDonalds agreed to drop fountain drinks from its Happy Meal menus in September 2013, and Wendy’s followed suit in January, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said. BK was one of the last holdouts, as Subway, Chipotle, Arby’s, and Panera had all previously removed soda as the default beverage option for their kids’ meals, the organization added.
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“While parents bear most of the responsibility for feeding their children well, restaurant chains also need to do their part,” CSPI senior nutrition policy counsel Jessica Almy said after Wendy’s announcement. “Restaurants should not be setting parents up for a fight by bundling soda with meal options designed for kids. Wendy’s is taking a responsible step forward that will improve children’s health and make it easier for parents to make healthy choices for their children.”
“Ensuring that our children can make healthy choices is an important part of raising them. When restaurants offer up sugary drinks as the default choice, it undermines those efforts,” added Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO of the advocacy group MomsRising.
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