Taking our children for a ride - 08/25/2006

Interviewer: I'm here today with Emma Noble who's recently co-authored a report called 'Taking our Children for a Ride' and it takes a look at the top tourist attractions in the UK and the food they're providing to children and families. So Emma, tell us something about the report. Which tourist attractions were coming top and which ones were coming bottom? Who should we avoid?

Emma: Okay, so we sent a mystery mum to 13 tourist attractions in England and one in Wales, so 14 in total. And, our mystery mum was looking for a range of different things, so fresh drinking water, fruit, healthy drinks – the type that are now available in schools. And just overall, what were they doing in terms of promoting lots of good food choices.

And coming bottom of the list with almost no points at all, just one point – one in the North East, the New Metroland, and Camelot Theme Park. And here, you couldn't really find a children's meal with any portions of fresh fruit or veg. You couldn't get free drinking water, it was hard to find anything healthy to drink at all, and there was no fruit at all available on site. And in fact in New Metroland, the only fruit we found was a gift from a guy from the kiosk out of his dad's shopping bag!

Top of the list were the Eden Project and the Tower of London. These are doing pretty well. There is free drinking water available, there are some good drinks – things like milk, pure juices, smoothies, as well as water. You can find fresh fruit, though their children's meals could be improved.

Interviewer: Okay, so tell us something about the methodology – what was your mystery mum actually looking for in these places?

Emma: Okay, well she visited the tourist attractions in June and July, of this year, 2006, and she was looking for whether the tourist attractions had free drinking water available, so that might be a water fountain or a kiosk giving out free drinking water; whether there were any healthy drinks in vending machines; whether there were any healthy drinks, and when I say healthy drinks, what we're talking about here are the kind of drinks that are now available in schools, so that is pure juice, milk, smoothies, yogurt drinks, alongside water, obviously; how long it would take her to find some fruit so she did a kind of fruit challenge – upon entry she looked around for fruit as soon as she walked in and how long did it take, and in one place it took three and a half hours! And even then it was a melon ball in a champagne cocktail, so hardly ideal – up in Blackpool.

And then for the children's meals, we were just looking in terms of the children's meals on offer – was there a portion of veg, was there a portion of fruit and was there a healthy drink. And finally we had an overall category which was about food promotion, and how the attractions were doing in terms of promoting healthier choices, compared to the often frequent promotions which we saw which was things like Coke and Pepsi promotions.

Interviewer: Are we just being a bit boring do you think? Is there really anything wrong with taking your kids out for the day and buying them a burger and chips? And if parents are really that bothered, should they just make the effort to bring a packed lunch?

Emma: Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with children going out and eating burgers and chips at all. It's just that there was very frequently no other option and if you've got a family there and you're there for the day, and that's all you can eat, that's pretty frustrating. And I think these attractions don't advertise that there's no healthy choices. They don't say 'Please bring a packed lunch'.

And, parents have probably spent three hours trying to get there, stuck on a motorway maybe, and they can hardly pop home to get a banana. So I think it's about people need to be able to have a choice, and you know it's hard to carry enough food for an entire day for an entire family round these attractions.

Interviewer: And why is it that you think these attractions aren't providing healthy options? Is it all down to money? Is it that providing healthy choices isn't actually profitable?

Emma: Well, you know, it's hard for me to second guess exactly why the attractions don't always offer some healthy alternatives. I think that clearly there are some attractions with some big food manufacturers and processors behind them. We saw branded rides, for example, Chessington World of Adventure, we've got Skips Dragon Fury and in Blackpool Pleasure Beach there's an Irun Bru Revolution and Pepsi Max Big One ride and in Alton Towers there's a ride called 'Air' sponsored by Cadbury. So, they're spending a lot of money promoting these fast foods, so it's clearly linked to their profitability otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

But I think what's more interesting is all the work that's been happening in school meals where people were saying 'Well, children won't eat healthy food, all they'll eat is burgers and chips' – we've absolutely knocked that one on the head, it's not true. There's plenty of schools out there serving really good quality, healthy meals which children do enjoy and I think it's just a bit of a lack of imagination really about whether you can make decent food more attractive to children.

Interviewer: But why is the Soil Association doing this research? Isn't the Soil Association just about promoting organic?

Emma: Central to our aims at the Soil Association is about healthy people and a healthy planet, so I think health and human health is central to what we do. And I think we did a lot of work on health with our Food for Life work which is our school meals campaign which started over five years ago and which led to encouraging Jamie Oliver to get involved in school meals, and as a result has been very successful and we've seen school meal standards change in England and soon in Wales.

So I think it's absolutely what we do and absolutely what we're about, and what we're saying here is that families should be given a choice if they so want to take it to have something healthy when they're out and about, and I think you'll see the Soil Association doing more of this kind of work about children's food and children's health, and the availability of unprocessed, good quality, local and organic produce.

Interviewer: So what can the worst offenders on your list learn from places like the Eden Project and the Tower of London? How can they actually improve what they're offering?

Emma: How can they improve? Well, it's just about enabling when there's a children's meal, ensuring that rather than it just being sausage and chips, that there is a vegetable option so maybe it's carrot sticks, so you're enabling that to happen. It's about looking at their fizzy drinks and saying, well, is there any way we can get some better quality drinks in here, just a pure juice or a smoothie.

Certainly, some of the most damaging or worrying practice we saw was where, and this was actually in London Zoo, where there was a meal deal and you could have any drink but you couldn't have water. So that's sending a message, encouraging you in a way to actually consume even more fizzy pop.

We saw in other places where you got a cup or a capsule when you walked in which could be refilled for free or very cheaply throughout the day, again to encourage children to have fizzy drinks. I just think that these attractions should be saying, well okay, we'll make this food available but let's not encourage the over-consumption of it for the whole family.

So it's just enabling more choice, and certainly it must be very easy to just put a chilled water facility in these places. I mean, I don't understand why they can't do that instantly really.

Interviewer: What can consumers do? Do they just avoid going to these places or can they take more positive action?

Emma: Well, I think positive action always wins hands down and I think it's about going and asking the question. If enough people ask them for it, they will provide it I'm sure. So when you're next out, go and ask where the fruit is, go and ask where the smoothies are, go and ask where I can get some fresh milk, see if you can get an alternative to chips – maybe you've already had chips that morning, maybe you don't want chips for dinner as well, so maybe you can have something else. Ask the questions – do a fruit challenge – see how long it takes you to find fruit.

Interviewer: If you'd like to read more and you'd like to find out more about these tourist attractions, and who's doing well and who's not, go to www.soilassociation.org/fruitchallenge where you can read the report. If you've got any questions for Emma, please email us at web@soilassociation.org and we'd be happy to answer them for you.

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