According to a new report from the Soil Association and Organix, the majority of family restaurant chains and visitor attractions in the UK need to make major improvements to their food and drink offering for children.

The survey took in 10 popular family restaurants and found “a prevalence of junk being served up as treat food”.

Ranked out of a possible 30 points – based on nutrition, food sourcing and provision as set out by the government’s new minimum standards for school meals – researchers scored the Whitbread-owned TGI Friday’s top at 16 while Harvester came second with 15 in joint place with Beefeater.

Bottom of the family restaurant table were Nando’s, which scored 10 points and Café Rouge, with eight.

The latest survey follows previous research from the Soil Association into family-orientated food outlets in leading attractions, which praised The Eden Project and the Tower of London in particular for offering freshly-prepared food.

Photograph: TGI Friday’s, which was ranked top of the family restaurant survey