Jim Murphy - PREM Group’s Managing Director

Children’s Initiative Reinforces Healthy Eating Habits

 

I congratulate the new President of the Irish Hotels Federation for the “Food for Kids” initiative that he has just launched . As the father of two children I am only too aware of the very limited and unhealthy food offered to children in our hotels and restaurants . The standard choice of chicken nuggets ,sausages,fish fingers ,all deep fried and all served with chips ,must become a thing of the past . The healthy menu suggestions given to members by the IHF  would appeal to my children and are all interesting and attractive options .

The initiative, which promotes more choice for parents, is the first nationally coordinated campaign of its kind in Europe. The IHF will provide chefs with healthy preparation guidelines along with a range of nutritious ‘Family Friendly Menus’ seasonally augmented in-line with the availability of fresh produce.

In partnership with independent dietitian Margot Brennan, the initiative will see the roll-out of a comprehensive range of menu options across participating hotels and guesthouses from May 2008 onwards. With an estimated 300,000 children now overweight or obese in Ireland¹, the ‘Family Friendly Menus’ will offer parents fun, interesting and healthy meals that reinforce healthy eating habits with an optimum balance of proteins, carbohydrates and nutrients.

In 2008, Irish hotels and guesthouses will prepare over five million meals for children, providing a significant opportunity to promote healthy eating among their younger guests. Coordinated and supported by the IHF, participating premises will help to address the pressing health issue of childhood obesity by delivering nutritious meals that are tasty, attractive and fun for children.

The healthy eating guidelines will promote:

• Eliminating salt in preparation and cooking
• Offering alternatives to chips
• Using ‘real potatoes’ to make homemade chunky chips with no added salt
• Using vegetables & fruit more imaginatively
• Increasing the use of whole-wheat and oats.
• Providing less fried foods
• Increasing the fibre content in children’s food
• Ensuring a child-friendly presentation of food
• Providing fish, chicken and meat that are nutritious and not processed.

The IHF stated that it hoped that this initiative will play a role in addressing alarming national statistics which include:

§         11.6% of Irish girls aged 5–12 years are overweight while 13% are obese

§         10.5% of Irish boys aged 5–12 years are overweight while 9.2% are obese

§         40% of Irish children exceed the recommended maximum of energy intake from fat.

§         61% of children did not consume enough fibre.

The IHF stated that hotels and guesthouses participating in the initiative will display a symbol so that parents can also make an informed selection on the property they choose to have family meals in. The IHF represents over 1,000 hotels and guesthouses throughout the country. Its members employ 60,000 staff.

I will be encouraging all our hotels to look at improving the children’s menu’s that we offer to include some of the suggestions outlined in this initiative .

For more information visit www.ihf.ie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:10 am and is filed under General, Prem Group Ireland, Prem Group UK, Prem Group in Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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