Hardly a day goes by without new concerns about our children’s diets. Despite it being newsworthy, the attitudes of our nation’s eateries towards children’s menus is still horrendous.

I don’t need rug rats to recognise that the majority of pubs, restaurants and hotels still focus on highly processed options for children, devoid of fresh fruit and vegetables. More often than not, kids are an afterthought. With the media out to rumble those preferring calories and saturated fats to healthier options, operators need to target column inches for praise, not blame.

This generation of children is often patronised by eateries. We forget that they have grown up in a very cultured, internationally styled culinary world, with a raft of flavours, spices and variety on supermarket shelves. Pubs and restaurants need to challenge the norm and remember that children do want more than nuggets, chips, chocolate puddings and fizzy drinks.

Our own research with local schools has shown that kids are surprisingly inquisitive and, with a bit of encouragement, happy to dig spoons into the flesh of a dragon fruit and show off to their friends by giving ‘Chinese Lanterns’ their correct (and ‘adult’) name of physalis. At a recent event in Oxfordshire, they also embraced stands offering olives, feta cheese and flavoured olive oils, dipping rye, wholewheat and multigrain bread bites into home-made curry sauces.

The Food Commission recently named and shamed many of the high street’s famous value, family-orientated chains for promoting the typical burgers-chips-fried-chicken profile - many with three times the amount of recommended fat and calories, and a depressing lack of anything green.

Of course, as a foodservice supplier, it is in our vested interest to promote fresh fruit and vegetables across today’s menus, but all our customers are guilty of ignoring fruit and veg’s supposed 40 per cent share of the plate. A vegetable tick-box offering is often the lowly pea or baked beans from a tin, whilst tomato sauce on a pizza counts too, apparently. What a depressing state of affairs when we consider all the wonderful products so openly available.

It is both ironic and sad that wartime children who struggled to consume the recommended daily calories were eating three times more fruit and veg than today’s child, from allotments and back gardens.

Unfortunately, it will take a strong brand to challenge the norm - one that is not afraid to rebalance its menu and take responsibility for improving the quality of its children’s offer. A glowing example has been the oriental-based restaurant The Yellow River Café, in London. It recently won an award for innovative children’s offerings - bento box selections which inspired children to try adult food at a smaller price, well-presented fruit salad desserts and a vast range of fruit juices. Famous brands Browns and Wagamama have also been praised for their efforts.

A survey carried out on 141 children’s menus in popular restaurants found every single one failed to meet the minimum recommended standards for children. It is the London independents that are proving they are not afraid to approach children with bold enthusiasm. We found kid’s menus with avocado and sour cream cheese and mushroom quesadillas, sweet potato gratin and tomato salad, smoked haddock and potato hash, as well as different-coloured fruit smoothies for each day. What a refreshing outlook!

So what should outlets do to ensure the press does not name and shame them when little Johnny leaves with a belly full of fat and salt? The obvious suggestion, which is a cost saver too, is to offer smaller portions of grown-up food. That way you do not compromise on variety, and you need not buy in additional stock for a child-based audience.

Huge investment is made in the packaging of children’s food to make it more enticing - lunch boxes, character-covered bowls and utensils, etc... It would be satisfying if some of that cash was geared towards grab-and-go style opportunities such as grape bags and easy-peeler citrus packs.

Operators need to be realistic; provide tailored offers of toys or treats to encourage children to eat healthily - for instance, free iced lollipops in the summer when they finish their meal. Sectioned pick-and-mix or tapas-type trays are also a great way to encourage kids to experiment with different healthy options. Lots of small portions create the perfect solution to keep their interest up, and allow them to make their own decisions.

Give children a better quality product and they will eat it. Lose the smiley face-shaped fishfingers, and indulge them in fresh, seasonal alternatives. Give them information on where their meal has come from, how it was grown, etc... Children are still seen as minority customers, so little thought is given to their needs, but we are inadvertently killing the education of our customers of the future.

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