Are Fast-Food Restaurants Keeping Their Promises to Offer Healthier Kids’ Meals?

To address public health concerns about the negative impact of children’s fast food consumption, some of the largest U.S. fast-food restaurants – McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Wendy’s, KFC, and Dairy Queen – have pledged to remove sugar-sweetened fountain drinks from menu boards and/or offer healthier drinks and side dishes with kids’ meals. In this research, we evaluated restaurants’ implementation of their healthier kids’ meal pledges by analyzing: (1) kids’ meal drink and side items listed on restaurants’ websites; (2) kids’ meal drink and side items listed and pictured on menu boards and featured on signs inside and outside restaurants; and (3) drinks and sides offered by restaurant personnel at the point-of-sale with kids’ meal orders. To assess changes over time, data were collected in 2010, 2013, and 2016