Poster Presentation ANZOS-ASLM-ICCR 2019

Kid's menus at non-fast food venues: A survey of parents (#168)

Vanessa Shrewsbury 1 , Li Kheng Chai 2 , Sze Lin Yoong 3 , Tamara Bucher 2 , Clare Collins 2
  1. University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
  2. Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity & Nutrition (PRCPAN), School of Health Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
  3. Hunter New England Population Health , Wallsend, NSW, Australia

On average Australian’s spend a third of their food budget on eating out. A greater understanding of child-specific (kid’s) menus is required to guide appropriate regulatory initiatives given the excessive discretionary food and sub-optimal core food intakes in Australian children. This study aimed to describe parent’s report of their children’s frequency of consuming foods from non-fast food venues and their perceptions of kid’s menus at these venues. Results were available from 95 parents, of children aged six months to 12 years, who completed a cross-sectional child-health survey. Food from non-fast food venues was consumed by 18% of children at least weekly and a further 36% at least monthly. At these venues parents reported seeing a kid’s menu often/sometimes (54%), with 78% of children ordering from these menus often/always (36%) or sometimes (42%). Parents viewed the portion size of kid’s menu items as just right (38%) or too large (34%). On average, parents perceived 45% of kid’s menu items to be healthy, although they preferred 69% of items to be healthy items. Most parents (86%) wanted to see changes to kid’s menus. Parents’ views support the implementation of regulatory initiatives to increase the availability of healthy options on kid’s menus at non-fast food venues.