Fast food chains show poor appetite for ethically-sourced produce

Fast food chains on the UK high street are being asked to add ethics to their menus in a new campaign by Ethical Consumer magazine.

In its latest product report, the magazine surveyed 22 of the UK's leading restaurant chains for their provision of ethically-sourced food including Fairtrade, free-range, organic and sustainable fish, discovering that not one fast food or restaurant chain is offering customers an ethically responsible menu.

Ethical Consumer says that of the restaurants which do offer an organic option these only represent a token effort  and include four organic yoghurts from Beefeater, organic milk from Nandos and organic coffee at Zizzi. And while over a half of restaurants offer free-range eggs, none offer either free-range or organic meat.

Tim Hunt, editor of Ethical Consumer's product guide to fast food and restaurant chains described the results as 'extremely disappointing': "Given that both Fairtrade and organic food and drink are now mainstream items and are regularly bought by large numbers of people, the country's fast food and restaurant chains need to wake up and provide their customers with what they want.”

Picture credit: © Flytosky11 | Dreamstime.com - Fast Food Photo