A restaurant-based intervention to promote sales of healthy children’s menu items: the Kids’ Choice Restaurant Program cluster randomized trial

Background Away-from-home eating is an important dietary behavior with implications on diet quality. Thus, it is an important behavior to target to prevent and control childhood obesity and other chronic health conditions. Numerous studies have been conducted to improve children’s dietary intake at home, in early care and education, and in schools; however, few studies have sought to modify the restaurant food environment for children. This study adds to this body of research by describing the development and launch of an innovative intervention to promote sales of healthy children’s menu items in independent restaurants in Southern California, United States.