News

Burger King adds nutritionally compliant kids meal to breakfast menu

July 20, 2010

Burger King Corp. announced today it will offer a breakfast meal for children that meets the company's nutrition criteria for advertised kids meals. This initiative is part of its pledge made through the Council of Better Business Bureau's (CBBB) Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).

The meal consists of a new BK kids breakfast muffin sandwich served with BK apple fries, and calcium-fortified Minute Maid apple juice. The muffin sandwich features egg and a slice of American cheese, and it is served on an English muffin.

The kids meal is available in participating Burger King restaurants nationwide beginning July 26 for the suggested price of $3.38. The menu item joins three existing BK kids meal options that also meet the nutrition criteria. To meet this criteria, a meal must be:

• No more than 560 calories per meal
• Less than 30 percent of calories from fat
• Less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat
• No added trans fats
• No more than 10 percent of calories from added sugars
• No more than 600 milligrams of sodium
• A "good source" or "excellent source" of at least two of the following nutrients: calcium, fiber, potassium, magnesium, vitamin E.

Three other kids meal options are also available that are pledge-compliant.

Positive Steps

 As part of its BKPositive Steps corporate responsibility program, BKC joined the CBBB's CFBAI in 2007, pledging to restrict 100 percent of national advertising aimed at children under 12 to BK kids meals that meet stringent nutrition criteria.

BKC also provides BK Positive Steps nutrition materials in restaurants nationwide, has transitioned to zero grams of artificial trans fat in all ingredients and cooking oils in the U.S., and has partnered with USDA to promote MyPyramid information to both kids and adults. The company plans to announce additional news about the breakfast menu in the coming months.

Burger King not alone

Burger King's healthier menu updates are part of a larger trend that has been gaining momentum. Mintel Menu Insights concluded Wednesday that menu items labeled as "healthy" grew 65 percent between the second quarter of 2009 and the same time period in 2010.

The momentum has picked up especially since the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Council recommended specific instructions for kids' menus last month. The DGAC urged restaurants to focus on children as "prevention of obesity in childhood is the single most powerful public health approach to combating America's obesity problem.

Additionally, Mintel  reported a 10 percent increase between 2007 and 2010 in menu items that contain fruits or vegetables. There has also been a 12 percent increase in menu items that were labeled as vegetarian between that time period.