Chips with your crayons? WH Smiths offers kids junk food meal vouchers

As the school term starts this week, investigations by the Children’s Food Campaign reveal how the nationwide stationery chain WH Smith is ‘rewarding’ children buying back-to-school supplies with discount vouchers for fatty and salty fast food.

On three separate occasions during August, our eight-year-old researcher was given six McDonalds discount vouchers for different meal combinations, including a Big Mac with medium fries, and a Double Cheeseburger with large fries. The discount vouchers could be used to purchase cut-price food containing as much as 4,630 calories, 15.9g of salt and 71g of saturated fat.  Based on the industry-preferred Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) figures for a child of this age, that’s equivalent to two and a half days-worth of energy, almost four times the maximum daily salt intake and over three and a half times the maximum daily intake of saturated fat.

Our researcher also spotted unhealthy products, including sweets, crisps and chocolate, displayed alongside the queuing area, and at the checkouts themselves.

The investigation was sparked by reports from parents that WH Smith staff had been offering cut price chocolate bars to customers, including children, while they were being served.

Children’s Food Campaign Coordinator Christine Haigh said:
“In a nation experiencing record levels of childhood obesity, the last thing we need is children being encouraged to eat junk food when all they are looking for is a new pencil case for the start of the school year.”

She continued:
“Junk food marketers are finding more and more ways to target our kids, and it’s increasingly clear that they’re unable to regulate themselves. As international scientists concluded just last month, we need a government that’s tough on obesity – and that includes introducing proper regulation to protect children from junk food marketing in all its forms.”

The most recent figures show that childhood obesity continues to rise, with nearly a quarter (23.1 per cent) of children overweight or obese by their first year of primary school, and one in three (33.4 per cent) overweight or obese by the end of their primary school career.

ENDS

For further information and interviews, please contact Christine Haigh on 0203 5596 777 or 07870 577934 or Christine@sustainweb.org. 

Notes to editors:

1) The Children's Food Campaign wants to improve children's health and well-being through better food - and food teaching - in schools, and protecting children from junk food marketing. We are supported by over 150 national organisations. The Children's Food Campaign is coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and funded by the British Heart Foundation. See: http://www.childrensfoodcampaign.org.uk

2) During August, we asked four children between the ages of 8 and 14, with their parents, to visit different WH Smith stores and purchase a small item of stationery. We asked them to record what food or drink items were on display in the queuing area, at the checkouts themselves, and whether they were offered any food or drink products, or vouchers for them, at the counter. Eight stores, in Euston, Fulham, Hammersmith, Loughton, Notting Hill Gate, Ross-on-Wye, Westfield and Wimbledon, were visited.

3) The six vouchers were for:
• Big Mac or McChicken Sandwich & Medium Fries – only £1.99
• Filet-O-Fish or 6 Chicken McNuggets & Medium Fries – only £1.99
• Quarter Pounder with Cheese & Medium Fries – only £1.99
• Big Mac or McChicken Sandwich & Medium Fries – only £1.99
• Double Cheeseburger & Large Fries – only £1.99
• Free regular coffee with the purchase of a Single or Double Sausage & Egg or Bacon & Egg McMuffin

The following combination of meals, if selected from the six discount vouchers, would contain the most energy:

Product	Energy (kcal)	Fat (g)	Sat fat (g)	Salt (g)
Big Mac Medium Fries	490 330	24 16	10 2	2.1 0.6
Filet-O-Fish Medium Fries	350 330	16 16	3 2	1.7 0.6
Quarter Pounder with Cheese Medium Fries	490 330	25 16	13 2	2.2 0.6
Big Mac Medium Fries	490 330	24 16	10 2	2.1 0.6
Double Cheeseburger Large Fries	440 460	23 23	12 2	2.1 0.9
Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin Regular Coffee (white)	565 25	34 1	12 1	2.3 0.1
TOTAL	4630	234	71	15.9
Child (age 5-10) GDA	1800	70	20	4.0
% child GDA	257	334	355	398

 

Nutritional information for McDonalds products is available at http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/food/nutrition/nutrition-counter.mcd.
GDA values are available at http://www.whatsinsideguide.com/MyGDAs.aspx.

4) Figures from the National Child Measurement Programme for the school year 2009/10 show that the proportion of children in England who are overweight or obese continues to rise.  The number of children who are overweight or obese by the time they reach Year 6 (age 10/11) has reached 33.4 per cent, an increase of 0.8 percentage points on the previous year; in Reception (age 4/5), the rate is 23.1 per cent, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous year.  For more information see http://www.ic.nhs.uk/ncmp. The UK is now the fattest nation in Europe.  For more information, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11983915.

5) In August, an international group of researchers, who published a series of articles in medical journal The Lancet concluded that tougher action is needed by governments if the obesity crisis is going to be tackled. For more information, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14669203