UK restaurant chains serving ready meals and UPF, Soil Association study finds
Popular UK restaurant chains may be “misleading or even ripping parents off” by serving ready meals and ultra-processed menus, a Soil Association investigation has warned.
We have found that meals are rarely being prepared and cooked on site using fresh ingredients, despite this being a priority for parents - with pre-made pasta sauces simply being warmed up at restaurants like Bella Italia, Prezzo and TGI Fridays.
Using an army of secret diner families, the Out to Lunch campaign has ranked chains in a league table according to health, sustainability, and dining experience. It found an abundance of unhealthy options, excessively sugary desserts, problematic additives, plus ultra-processed and low welfare meat.
Franco Manca is at the bottom of the league table for failing to serve enough veg to children and for declining to share details on their sourcing and preparation practices with parents or the Soil Association.
But thanks to pressure from the parents involved, a handful of “pioneering” restaurants have made a pledge to report on ultra-processed ingredients in their kitchens – for the first time.
This includes Wahaca and JD Wetherspoon, who topped the league table in recognition of their efforts to provide more freshly prepared and healthy options for children.
The findings and groundbreaking pledge come amid growing concern around UPF with it now one of the top concerns for Brits according to the Food Standards Agency – plus evidence linking ultra-processed diets to health problems like cancer plus heart, kidney and liver disease.
Parents feel cheated by lack of fresh prep at high street chains
Secret diner Becca Watts, 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 homecooked, fresh meals? If we want a premade 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.”
See the league table and find out more about your favourite restaurant chain.
Freshly prepared and healthy meals don’t have to cost more
The investigation found some restaurant chains were serving quality food at a reasonable price, while others were offering menus characterised by “unnecessary” levels of ultra-processed and unhealthy ingredients.
Key findings include:
- Price is not a barrier to better children’s menus, with high scoring JD Wetherspoon one of the cheapest chains surveyed – all children’s meals at the chain include two portions of veg and a fruit option for pudding.
- At Wahaca, children’s meals are mostly prepared on site from fresh ingredients – and they’re cheaper than many chains offering re-heated 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 analysis.
- Only three out of 20 chains completely avoid drinks with artificial sweeteners or added sugar, with problematic additives still found on kids’ menus at KFC, Frankie & Benny's, Bella Italia, McDonald's, and Pizza Express.
- Seven out of 20 chains don't serve veg with every child’s meal as standard.
- Pizza Hut and Nando’s continue to serve unlimited fizzy drinks, including to children, despite health concerns.
- Half of chains serve desserts that would exceed a child’s daily sugar allowance. Toby Carvery’s Chocolate Heaven Sundae was the worst offender, serving up more than double the recommended daily limit with 58.5g of sugar.
- Most fruit and veg comes from abroad and only one restaurant – Nando's – reported using 100% British meat for children’s meals, with KFC and TGI Fridays serving meat from as far away as Thailand and Brazil.
- Only three chains were found to be serving meat with a higher welfare guarantee, such as free-range and RSPCA. But most use free range eggs only and a third of chains now serve organic on their menus.
Ultra-processed pledge
The new government has committed to prioritising child health and is considering measures to improve the national diet, including mandatory reporting for businesses.
In a positive first step towards this vision and in response to the Out to Lunch campaign, seven restaurant chains have agreed to audit all the ingredients they purchase over the coming months – Wahaca, JD Wetherspoon, Zizzi, Carluccio’s, Toby Carvery, Harvester, Leon.
They will then report back to the Soil Association on how many are UPF, according to the internationally recognised NOVA classification of food processing.
Oona added: “Parents are rightly concerned that children’s menus across the high street are excessively ultra-processed. We recognise that UPF is an area where businesses currently lack guidance from government, and we need to understand the scale of the challenge before we can identify and prioritise solutions. We are therefore delighted to be working with a handful of pioneering restaurant chains who are taking the first step towards fixing Britain’s ultra-processed diets.”