By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Happy Meal toys are under attack.
Several Manhattan City Council members are backing legislation that would ban fast food restaurants from including toys in un-nutritious kids' meals.
Queens City Councilman Leroy Comrie intends to introduce a bill Wednesday that would bar eateries from giving away toys and games with meals unless they meet certain nutritional standards.
"I am introducing a bill that will limit the fast food industries' ability to target and lure in the most vulnerable members of our society," Comrie said in a statement, adding that nearly one-third of kids and adolescents in the country are either overweight or obese.
San Francisco has already move forward with a ban on kids' meal toys.
Under the proposed rules, toys would only be permitted with meals that pack fewer than 500 calories, 600 milligrams of sodium, less than 35 percent of total calories from fat, and which contain a half cup of fruit or vegetables or a full serving of whole grains, among other guidelines.
Violators would face fines of up to $2,500 for repeated violations.
Downtown City Councilwoman Margaret Chin said that the bill would help to eliminate a major incentive for buying fast food.
"The fast food industry has unfairly targeted children for too long. Our country is in a public health crisis. We need to take whatever steps necessary to ease our children’s addiction," she said in a statement.
Upper West Side Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who also supports the legislation, said the legislation would encourage restaurants to produce more nutritious meals.
But already, there was push-back.
"This proposal robs parents of choice while increasing the already burdensome regulation on local restaurant owners," Andrew Rigie, executive vice president of the New York City Chapter of the New York Restaurant Association, said in a statement, according to the New York Times.
"We need to find a more effective way to combat obesity than by taking toys away from children and choices away from their parents," he said.
