Restaurant and Food Service Blog

In an article from Yahoo! Business News - Fast Food Giants Urged to Value [the] Meal- a watchdog, Corporate Accountability International, has decided to demand the fast food industry to take more responsibility to whom it markets to. Corporate Accountability names McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s/Arby’s, and Yum! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) as the biggest violators. It goes further to suggest that these companies should “stop aggressively marketing to children, blocking labeling laws, and interfering in public healthy policy.”

Below is a brief excerpt from their formal statement:

Corporate Accountability International issued demands in a letter to CEOs and is launching a national public education and action campaign called Value [the] Meal. The campaign aims to stem the global tide of diet-related disease, in which fast food giants are playing a central role.

“McDonald’s and others reduced the meaning of “value” to how little we pay at the register, ignoring the significant cost to our children’s long-term health and environment,” said Executive Director Kelle Louaillier. “It is about time the fast food industry took responsibility for its role in making our children sick, acting to truly Value [the] Meal, not just to increase sales of ‘value meals.”

I know that there has been a lot of fodder to slam the in restaurant industry especailly with the publication of Fast Food Nation. But there have also been some companies that have been making positive changes or even have been offering healthy alternatives. Take Subway for instance. I don’t think that Jarrod really lost all that weight by eating Subway sandwiches, but it is a better fast food alternative.

I don’t think that the problem is entirely the restaurant industry’s fault. Americans are now leading more sedintary lifestyles and there is less of an importance of eating at home. I know that I am one who will feed my kids dinner out a bag from time to time as I get them from school to after school activities. With two working professionals in the house and three kids, we sometimes have to make decisions based on time and convenience.

Even Papa John’s founder, John Schattner, has made a sort of warning about even eatting his own pizzas.

Where do you fall on the issue?