Maccas at the RCH
Subway restaurants yesterday said they would apply to set up a shop in the RCH but the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut said they would not do so for ethical reasons.
McDonald’s said it would not know whether it could operate at the hospital until it saw the new RCH food guidelines.
“We’d obviously welcome the opportunity to consult the hospital on this as we need to understand what the hospital’s seeking to do and what that means for our business,” said operations director Raylee McLeod.
The new guidelines follow a “traffic light” system where green (healthy) foods must make up half the menu and red (unhealthy) items cannot be more than a fifth.
A spokesman for Yum! Restaurants Australia, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut, said the company’s policy not to advertise to children meant it would never open shops at a children’s hospital.
“Yum! supports parents to make responsible dietary decisions for their children,” spokesman Zac Rich said.
“For this reason it does not advertise KFC or Pizza Hut brands to children — a decision it took over two years ago.”
Obesity expert Prof Boyd Swinburn said he believed McDonald’s would do everything possible to stay in the Royal Children’s — even if it had to overhaul its menu and run at a loss.
“To appear to have the hospital’s stamp of approval is worth serious, serious money for them,” he said.
Prof Swinburn, director of the World Health Organisation’s Centre for Obesity Prevention, said allowing fast food sent a bad message but he hoped the menu guidelines would improve food served there.
Tags: maccas, maccas at rch, rch
Posted in Health
No Comments