Nutritional Value of Kid's Meal offered by International Fast Food Restaurants in Qatar
Authors: Abedini Zahra Salman 
Published: June 2019

Background The nutritional content of kid's meal in Qatar has often been overlooked. In our efforts to reach out to children of Qatar, their nutritional intake could be a nice place to start. The objectives of this study are to assess nutritional value of kid's meal offered by some international fast food restaurants in Qatar and to determine density of international fast food restaurant offering kid's meal by municipality areas. Methods We selected 6 international fast food restaurants that offer kid's meals and the density of these restaurants by kids' population aged 1-9 years old in Qatar. The selected fast food restaurants were McDonald's, Burger king, KFC, Hardee's, Papa john's, and DQ Grill & Chill. We assessed the number of branches of the restaurants using phone applications zomato and talabat. These applications allow the user to know the location and the numbers of branches in different municipality areas. We used also the official restaurants websites to collect data of the nutrient content of kids' meals offered by the 6-international restaurant in Qatar. Moreover, we used GPS to make sure of the location and the number of these restaurants. The entire restaurant offered 4 combinations of kid's meals except Papa John's offered 4 meals. We selected from each restaurant chain 25% of the total branches available in Qatar. During our visit, we asked for nutrition fact table of meals offered for kid's. Only McDonald's provide nutrition fact with meals for all customers. The other restaurants provide it only on websites or management department. We calculated the density by dividing the number of international fast food over the total children population aged 1-9 years old multiplying by 1000. SPSS and ANOVA (at p < 0.05) were used to analysis data. Results McDonald»s has the highest number of outlets which represent 41 out of 133 international fast food outlets offering kids meals and the DQ grill and chill had the lowest number of outlet which represent 5 out of 133. The average nutrients content of 23 kid»s meal offered by international fast food restaurants in Qatar was 653.30 ± 31.5 calories for calories contents, 21.61 ± 10.24 g for protein content, 28.32 ± 9.07 g for fat content, 84.57 ± 19.22 g for CHO content, 4.40 ± 2.79 g for fiber content and 968 ± 372.31 mg for sodium content. The percentage of covering the RDA calories recommendation of children aged 1-9 years old by 23 kid»s meals offered by six international fast food in Qatar was 47.8 ± 0.02% for calories, 134.6 ± 0.13% for protein, 58.9 ± 0.04% for fat, 63.6 ± 0.03% for CHO, 20.2 ± 0.03% for fiber and 91.4 ± 0.08% for sodium. In general, international fast food kid's meals are rich in carbohydrates, fat, protein, sodium and low in fiber. Conclusion Nowadays children are eating foods prepared outside the home more frequently than ever; improving the nutritional quality of food items offered at fast-food restaurants can contribute to important gains in population health. In this study, we found that fast food meals are nutritionally inadequate and its regular consumption is associated with excess intake of calories, fat, sodium, protein, carbohydrate, and low fiber intake.