US Restaurant Chain Puts Parental Ratings on Its Menus
| September 19, 2011 | Posted by Alex under Lifestyle |
A US restaurant chain owners, Darden Restaurants, which owns several thousand outlets, has started to put Parental Guidance (PG) ratings on its menus.
The move, which is based off film ratings of the same name, is designed to help parents control their children’s diets at popular restaurants. Every menu choice with the PG rating needs to have the approval of the parents before being ordered, meaning that a child will not be able to order some of the less healthy side dishes, such as french fries, unless their parents consent.
This move came in response to first lady Michelle Obama’s call for restaurants to do more to combat the nation wide obesity epidemic that is plaguing the USA.
Each of the chains owned by Darden Restaurants,Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse and Bahama Breeze will start following the parental rating system.
As well, each chain will also offer at least one full children’s meal option that contains under 600 calories, which is a nice alternative to some of the 1500+ calorie kids meals out there.
Hopefully this move is something that will be copied over here in Canada, or at least imported as some sort of equivalent. While the whole PG idea does sound kind of cheesy, the principle is sound.
By having meal choices that require parental consent, it will let parents think twice before ordering some menu options, or especially when it comes to ordering seconds. It’s easy to get lost and forget when you are a large meal with the whole family, so if anything, this measure can act as secondary line of defence in the war on obesity.
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