Table 2.
Beverage availability, consistency and pricing with bundled children’s meals available to order online in fast-food restaurants in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education eligible neighbourhoods in California, (n 631 observations*, 254 restaurants, 13 restaurant chains)
| Observations that offered beverage with children’s meals on either first or second ordering screen†, (n 631 observations) | Observations with beverage available with children’s meal on first ordering screen, (n 631 observations) | Restaurants with consistent availability of beverage on first ordering screen across all platforms, (n 254 restaurants) | Observations with beverage shown in an image of the children’s meal‡, (n 631 observations) | Observations with beverage available with children’s meal on second ordering screen, (n 132 observations) | Restaurants with consistent availability of beverage on second ordering screen across all platforms, (n 105 restaurants) | Of observations that offered this beverage, number that up-charged for this beverage | Of observations that upcharged for this beverage, average price of upcharge | Of observations with an upcharge for this beverage, upcharge as average % of total children’s meal cost | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beverage | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | $ | range | % | range |
| Beverages allowed as defaults by California’s Healthy-by-Default Children’s Beverage law§ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Water | 445 | 70·5 | 444 | 70·4 | 113 | 44·5 | 52 | 8·2 | 86 | 65·2 | 20 | 19·1 | 183 | 41·1 | 0·51 | 0·10–1·29 | 11·1 | 2·0–31·7 |
| Milk, unflavoured | 396 | 62·8 | 390 | 61·8 | 157 | 61·8 | 376 | 59·6 | 78 | 59·1 | 28 | 26·7 | 42 | 10·6 | 0·38 | 0·04–1·10 | 7·4 | 0·8–17·3 |
| Milk, unspecified|| | 153 | 24·3 | 153 | 24·3 | 150 | 59·1 | 99 | 15·7 | 0 | 0·0 | 105 | 100 | 31 | 20·3 | 0·27 | 0·10–0·69 | 5·4 | 2·0–17·3 |
| Other beverages (not allowable defaults by California’s Healthy-by-Default Children’s Beverage law§) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Milk, flavoured | 223 | 35·3 | 152 | 24·1 | 203 | 79·9 | 0 | 0·0 | 71 | 53·8 | 34 | 32·4 | 10 | 4·5 | 0·32 | 0·10–0·70 | 7·3 | 1·9–17·3 |
| Fruit juice, 100 % | 326 | 51·7 | 251 | 39·8 | 169 | 66·5 | 1 | 0·2 | 75 | 56·8 | 30 | 28·6 | 92 | 28·4 | 1·03 | 0·20–2·40 | 23·9 | 3·2–68·6 |
| Fruit juice, diluted | 166 | 26·3 | 93 | 14·7 | 246 | 96·9 | 0 | 0·0 | 73 | 55·3 | 32 | 30·5 | 13 | 7·8 | 0·43 | 0·20–0·90 | 9·5 | 4·2–20·1 |
| Soda, regular | 274 | 43·4 | 156 | 24·7 | 191 | 75·2 | 0 | 0·0 | 118 | 89·4 | 13 | 12·4 | 0 | 0·0 | ||||
| Soda, diet | 274 | 43·4 | 156 | 24·7 | 191 | 75·2 | 0 | 0·0 | 118 | 89·4 | 13 | 12·4 | 0 | 0·0 | ||||
| Soda, unclear|| | 9 | 1·4 | 2 | 0·3 | 253 | 99·6 | 0 | 0·0 | 8 | 6·1 | 97 | 92·4 | 0 | 0·0 | ||||
| Other pre-sweetened beverage¶ | 275 | 43·6 | 152 | 24·1 | 195 | 76·8 | 0 | 0·0 | 123 | 93·2 | 8 | 7·6 | 8 | 2·9 | 0·47 | 0·27–0·53 | 10·2 | 8·9–11·4 |
| Other unsweetened/artificially sweetened beverage** | 130 | 20·6 | 12 | 1·9 | 243 | 95·7 | 0 | 0·0 | 118 | 90·1 | 13 | 12·4 | 0 | 0·0 | ||||
| Unspecified fountain/kid’s drink option†† | 71 | 11·3 | 49 | 7·8 | 231 | 90·9 | 4 | 0·6 | 22 | 16·8 | 83 | 79·1 | 2 | 2·8 | 0·10 | 0·10–0·10 | 2·3 | 2·1–2·6 |
Nine observations did not allow a beverage choice/selection with children’s meals sold online, but presumably could be selected at pick-up.
For sampled restaurants (n 254), there were four potential ordering platforms sampled per restaurant (restaurant specific platform; DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats), resulting in a potential four observations/restaurant.
Includes observations from the first screen where beverage selection was available when ordering a children’s meal online, and in some cases, from a second screen if there was an option on the first screen to see additional beverage choices.
Thirty-six observations did not have an image of the children’s meal that showed a beverage on any of the observed ordering screens.
California Senate Bill (SB) 1192, Healthy-by-Default Children’s Meal Beverage Law, requires restaurants that serve a children’s meal which includes a beverage make the default beverage offered with the children’s meal to be one or more of the following: 1. Water, sparkling water, or flavoured water with no added natural or artificial sweeteners; 2. Unflavoured milk (plain dairy milk); 3. Non-dairy milk alternative (example: almond, coconut or soy milk). It does not prohibit a restaurant’s ability to sell, or a customer’s ability to purchase, an alternative beverage instead of the default beverage offered with the children’s meals, if requested by the purchaser of the children’s meal.
Was not clear by online listing if beverage was flavoured or unflavoured milk or regular or diet soda.
Other pre-sweetened beverages included sweetened iced teas, sweetened lemonades, sweetened juice drinks and milkshakes.
Other artificially or unsweetened beverages included almost exclusively unsweetened iced teas (98 %), but also included lite lemonade (2 %).
Includes items listed as ‘fountain drink,’ ‘kid’s drink,’ ‘small drink,’ or something similarly non-specific, often with a link or drop-down menu with specific beverage options, including sugar-sweetened beverages.