Requires restaurants to provide healthy beverages with meals designated for children.

A4153

ASSEMBLY, No. 4153

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 19, 2026

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman� CAROL A. MURPHY

District 7 (Burlington)

SYNOPSIS

���� Requires restaurants to provide healthy beverages
with meals designated for children.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� As introduced.

��

An Act

concerning children�s nutrition and
supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� The Legislature finds
and declares that:

���� a.���� The obesity rate in the
United States has sharply climbed, with about a third of children nationwide
deemed overweight or obese.� In New Jersey, 22.7 percent of adolescents are
overweight or obese, while 32.5 percent of children aged 2 to 4 in the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children are overweight
or obese.� It is noteworthy that obese children are at least twice as likely as
non-obese children to become obese adults.

���� b.��� Sugary drinks play a
critical role in the obesity epidemic.� Sugary drinks, including soda, energy
and sports drinks, sweetened water, and fruit drinks, provide the largest
source of daily calories in the diets of American children ages 2 to 18.� Each
extra serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage consumed by a child in one day
increases the child�s chance of becoming obese by 60 percent.

���� c.���� Obese children are at
greater risk for numerous adverse health consequences, including Type 2
diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, certain
cancers, asthma, low self-esteem, depression, and other debilitating diseases. �Sugary
drinks are also linked to other health problems, including a greater risk of
cardiovascular disease in adolescents, higher blood pressure in adolescents,
dental cavities, and insufficient intake of essential nutrients, including
calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, and vitamin A.

���� d.��� Families in New Jersey
have limited time to obtain and prepare healthy food, making dining out an
appealing and often necessary option.� Nationwide, American children eat 19
percent of their calories at fast-food and other restaurants, and children and
adolescents who eat at both fast-food and full-service restaurants drink more
sugary drinks and less milk.

���� e.���� Requiring restaurants
to provide a healthy beverage as the beverage automatically included in meals
designated for children is an effective way to improve the nutritional quality
of these meals; as an example, the Disney Corporation moved to this practice
and, in 2008, reported that 68 percent of beverage orders at its American
resorts included the healthier option.

���� f.���� Therefore, it is in the
public�s interest to support parents� efforts to nourish children with healthy
options while dining in restaurants.

���� 2.��� As used in this act:

���� �Children�s meal� means a
combination of food and a beverage,

sold together at a single price, primarily intended for consumption by
children.

���� �Default beverage� means the
beverage automatically included or paired with a children�s meal, absent a
specific request by the purchaser for an alternative beverage.

���� �Restaurant� means the same as
defined in section 1 of P.L.1983, c.488 (C.26:3E-1).

���� 3.��� a.�� A restaurant shall
not sell a children�s meal unless the default beverage is:

���� (1)�� water, sparkling water,
or flavored water, with no added natural or artificial sweeteners;

���� (2)�� nonfat or one percent
milk or non-dairy milk alternative containing no more than 130 calories per
container or serving as offered for sale; or

���� (3)�� one hundred percent
fruit juice or fruit juice combined with water or carbonated water, with no
added sweeteners, in a serving size of no more than eight ounces.

���� b.��� Nothing in this section
shall prohibit a restaurant from selling, or offering for sale, a beverage
other than the default beverage included with a children�s meal.

���� 4.��� The Commissioner of
Health shall adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the �Administrative
Procedure Act,� P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), to enforce the provisions
of this act.

���� 5.��� This act shall take
effect on the first day of the sixth month next following the date of
enactment.

STATEMENT

���� This bill requires restaurants
to provide a healthy beverage with any meals designated for children.

���� Under the bill, a restaurant�s
default beverage for a children�s meal could be:

���� (1)�� water, sparkling water,
or flavored water, with no added natural or artificial sweeteners;

���� (2)�� nonfat or one percent
milk or non-dairy milk alternative containing no more than 130 calories per
container or serving as offered for sale; or

���� (3)�� one hundred percent
fruit juice or fruit juice combined with water or carbonated water, with no
added sweeteners, in a serving size of no more than eight ounces.

���� The bill does not prohibit or
preclude a restaurant from selling or offering another beverage as a
replacement to the default beverage included with the children�s meal.�