Some of the first fast-food restaurants in the nation prohibited from giving free toys with children’s meals that don’t meet nutritional standards reacted by curbing the marketing of the toys and highlighting their healthier meals, but did not increase the number of healthful items on their menus, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The authors said their study, though small, provides the first insights into how fast-food restaurants may respond to legislation intended to prevent restaurants from using toys to make unhealthful food items appealing to children. The study tracked the reaction to an ordinance enacted in August 2010 in Northern California’s Santa Clara County.
“This ordinance gave us the opportunity to study a real-world example of a private-sector response to a public health policy,” said Jennifer Otten, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the lead author of the study, published online Dec. 8 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.