Chain restaurants: children’s meals.

Plain English Breakdown

The specific types of food servings required in children's meals and the consequences for non-compliance are not detailed in the official source material.

Chain Restaurants: Kids' Meals

The bill requires chain restaurants to offer at least one children's meal meeting specific nutrition standards and includes an icon on the menu.

What This Bill Does

• Requires chain restaurants to provide a kids’ meal with no more than 550 calories.
• Requires chain restaurants to include two servings of specified types of food in each kids' meal.
• Requires chain restaurants to put an icon or symbol on their menus to show which meals meet the nutrition standards.
• Requires chain restaurants to train employees about these new rules by a certain date.

Who It Names or Affects

• Chain restaurants that sell children’s meals in California.

Terms To Know

Chain restaurant

A group of restaurants with the same name and similar menus, owned by one company.

Nutrition standards

Rules about how healthy food should be to meet certain goals for calories, types of food, etc.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if a restaurant breaks these rules.
• It is unclear which chain restaurants are affected by this law until the definition of 'chain' is clarified.
• There may be costs for restaurants to change their menus and train employees, but no state reimbursement is provided.

Official Summary Text

SB 977, as amended, Weber Pierson.
Chain restaurants: children’s meals.
Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities, as defined, and requires local enforcement agencies to enforce these provisions. Existing law requires a restaurant that sells a children’s meal that includes a beverage to make the default beverage water, sparkling water, or flavored water, as specified, or unflavored milk or a nondairy milk alternative, as specified. A violation of the code’s provisions related to children’s meals is an infraction.
This bill would require a chain restaurant, as defined, that sells a children’s meal to offer at least one children’s meal that meets specified minimum nutrition standards, including, among others, that the meal not contain more than 550 calories and
that the meal include at least 2 servings of specified types and quantities of food. The bill would also require the chain restaurant to include an icon or symbol on the menu to identify the children’s meal that meets those requirements. The bill would require a chain restaurant that sells a children’s meal, on or before July 1,
2026,
2027,
to include information to its employees on how to comply with those requirements.
By creating new crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF