Consumer protection Happy Meal ban makes sense

Consumer Protection: Happy Meal Ban Mc Donalds makes sense. The children's menu "linked unhealthy food with toys" criticize the consumer advocates.

The fast food company "Mc Donalds" has been offering the children's menu "Happy Meal" for years. In this combined menu especially for children, in addition to food products such as hamburgers or chips, toys are also offered. A mother from the US state of California is now suing the global corporation. Her child just wanted to go to Mc Donnald's for the toy. That's why the mother filed a class action lawsuit. Now, the German consumer center in Hamburg has turned into the debate.

The consumer advocates clearly target the children's menu "Happy Meal". The nutrition expert of the consumer center Hamburg, Armin Valet, told the Tagesspiegel: "Happy Meal combines unhealthy food with toys". Although a class action in Germany is not possible, but a ban on the specially designed for children menu "useful".

The two-time Californian mother Monet Parham justified her complaint by saying that the company's offer of a combination of menu and children's toys encourages their children to adopt an unhealthy diet. Above all, the purposeful advertising for children is reprehensible. Her six-year-old daughter Maya only wanted to eat at Mc Donald's, because there were toy figures like Barbie's and comic heroes. "I protest that McDonald's creeps into my kids' minds and influences what my kids want to eat." so Parham in an interview.

In San Francisco and neighboring Santa Clarita, US city councils have already decided to ban toys on children's menus when a certain maximum of calories, salt, fat and sugar has been exceeded.

Mc Donnalds will not put up with the lawsuit and the allegations. After all, one was "proud" of the "Happy Meals", as a group spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times. The group is confident that parents know that Happy Meals is "a fun treat" with a "quality and balanced" meal. Whether the consumer center can actually obtain a ban in Germany, is questionable. Too big is the influence of the fast food chain. (sb, 18.12.2010)

Image: Thommy Weiss