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Theme parks slammed for serving unhealthy food
Consumer Association Which? has slammed the UK’s theme park industry for not offering its visitors sufficient healthy food options.
Two experts – a dietician and a nutritionist – visited 20 visitor attractions across the country during April and May this year, evaluating the quality of food on offer at traditional visitor attractions.
While the resulting report praises attractions such as the British Museum, Tate Modern and Edinburgh Castle, it dishes out harsh criticism toward the UK’s theme parks.
Flamingoland, Camelot Theme Park, the New Pleasurewood Hills and Drayton Manor were particularly singled out for a lack of effort to make healthy foods available for visitors.
The report said: “Fast food that is high in calories and fat dominates the menus at most of the theme parks and you need to be determined if you want something a little more healthy.
“The quality of the food at some of the outlets looked poor. Fruit and vegetables were hard to find and when available, often looked bruised and battered.”
The two experts assessed the range of food outlets by giving each eatery a score out of a maximum of five.
Having three or more low-fat choices and at least two portions of fruit or vegetables entitled a maximum score of five, while no healthy choices warranted a score of one.
Edinburgh Castle scored a perfect 100 per cent (both its restaurants scored a five), while Flamingoland (16 points out of 55 at its 11 outlets) and Camelot (13 points out of 45 at its nine outlets) came bottom of the pile with 29 per cent each. Details: www.which.net