Pizza Power Kids on healthier kids’ menu in Fullers pubs

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The large UK independent pub chain, Fullers, spring into healthy eating action with the launch of an innovative healthier kids’ menu across 136 sites in June.

Developed by Scottish start-up Eat Balanced, their Pizza Power Kids range, means that children enjoy one of their favourite foods, without knowing it’s better for them.

“There is no denying that children love pizza.  It regularly tops the list of favourites at family restaurants,” confirms Katie Sillars, Sales and Marketing Director at Eat Balanced.  “However, most of them would not readily accept a meal that they think is “healthy”. Our pizzas have been designed with a professor of nutrition, so that they look and taste like a normal pizza but have some additional nutrient-packed natural ingredients sneaked in there.  We’re delighted that Fullers have embraced our ‘health by stealth’ concept.”

According to research from the Schools Food Trust, health is a key consideration for parents when eating out with some 87% saying that they would like to see healthier childrens’ menus.  However, the “healthy option” can often be shunned by the kids themselves.

Fullers Pubs Company, Paul Dickinson, Executive Chef stated;

“This is the first time we have featured pizza on our kids’ menu.  We go to great lengths to source fresh and high quality foods for our adult’s menus as well as our kids’ menu.  We’ve worked hard to deliver dishes with low salt content. The seaweed used in Pizza Power Kids to replace salt, is a brilliant idea, and you can’t see it or taste it.  Along with the other innovative ingredients, it’s a great product and we are very positive that the kids and parents will all agree.”

Eat Balanced are helping food service operators and caterers sell more of the “healthy option” with a healthier kids’ menu, with it also being affordable, and are currently working on re-inventing other kids’ favourite foods into nutritionally balanced meals.

Eat Balanced has created a range of point-of-sale materials, appropriate for family restaurants, education, leisure and sports venue, to help operators promote the new kids’ pizzas to parents.

The Pizza Power Kids range are supplied frozen and are available UK wide through major food service distributors and operators, for more information, contact Katie Sillars on katie@eatbalanced.com.

Eat Balanced wins Commitment to Health at Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards

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On the 2nd June ’16, Scotland’s premier food and drink awards, we claimed our first Excellence Award – Commitment to Health.

Having tried four times before, this was our first award at the prestigious Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards.  The winners are chosen by an independent panel of judges from all aspects of the food and drink industry.

Here’s what our lovely Managing Director and myself had to say:

“We are so pleased to win this award, as it’s a very welcome reward and recognition for several tough years trying to get a healthier food company off the ground,” stated Donnie Maclean, Founder and Managing Director.

Sales and Marketing Director, Katie Sillars explained, “We have always had a focus on health, since we began 4 years ago.  However, when the supermarkets didn’t work out for us, we changed our strategy and focused in on the kids market.  This was because we realised the simple fact that people care more about their kid’s health than their own health.”

In the UK, one fifth of children are overweight or obese when they begin school, and this figure increases to one third of children when they leave school.[1]  We are committed to improving these statistics with our products, as well as visits to schools and speaking at conferences throughout the country.

We’ve worked with a leading professor of nutrition, Mike Lean, from University of Glasgow to create a range of pizzas that are as nutritious as the can be without children being able to tell that they are better for them.  The pizzas are sold under the Pizza Power Kids brand.

As well as running our food company, where we provide our healthier pizzas into schools, family restaurants and the leisure industry, Donnie and I hold additional positions which demonstrates our commitment to health.  I am a part of a food reformulation group and part of the Scotland Food & Drink Forum.  Donnie is one of 12 people selected to be on the Scottish Government’s Food Commission, which has a remit to make progress towards Scotland becoming a “Good Food Nation”.

We’re both not only passionate about the healthier food that we sell, we also share a passion for endurance sports.  This summer, we are raising money for various charities.  Both are kayaking the 50 mile perimeter of Loch Ness in one day in early July, with 5 others in the food industry.  In mid August, Donnie is swimming one million metres this year, including the full length (26 miles) of Loch Lomond of a small children’s cancer charity, and I (Katie) am running the Berlin Marathon at the end of September.  Yes, we are both gluttons for punishment!

[1] House of Commons Health Committee, Childhood obesity – brave and bold action, First report of session 2015 – 2016, November 2015