Travel

Feeding Kids on the Road: Dashboard Dining

By Teresa Plowright, About.com GuideJune 30, 2005

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Ideally a family road trip should include fun stops every few hours. But reality often means pedal-to-the-metal, and food as fast as we can get it, i.e. meals picked up at a fast-food Drive-Thru. Which -- with kids-- can mean a lot of in-car messiness. So what should you choose to eat, for less-mess in the car? See what a study about Dashboard Dining found out.

See also: Five Tips for Feeding Kids on Road Trips. continued below...

The "Dashboard Dining" Trend

If you eat in the car, you've got plenty of company: a recent survey by Taco Bell* revealed that nearly a third of Americans eat in their cars at least once or twice a week.

Car manufacturers are finally building in some help for in-car gnoshing, such as multiple cup holders, at a minimum. Some minivans have rectangular "cup holders" for juiceboxes; other cars have "car coolers"; and at least one model-- the 2003 Toyota 4Runner-- has an armrest tray (unofficially dubbed the "Burger King tray".)

On the other end of this trend, fast-food companies are well aware that much of their food is being eaten in autos: for example, some 70% of Taco Bell business is sold through Drive Thru.

What's the least messy?

To take a closer look at what people munch, Taco Bell's survey used a "Dashboard Dining Index" to rate a number of fast-food items-- at different outlets-- for messiness, drips or crumbs; number of napkins used; and whether the product could be eaten with one hand. Items rated were:

* Chicken Tenders (Burger King®)
* Chicken McNuggets® (McDonald’s®)
* Crunchwrap Supreme™ (Taco Bell®)
* Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger (Wendy’s®)
* Tuna Wrap (SUBWAY®)

Some of the findings include:

68 % of survey respondents said they eat in their cars to save time, with their largest concern being messiness, trash and spills.
85% rated the Taco Bell® Crunchwrap Supreme™ as the best “Eat On-The-Go” menu item.
McDonald’s® chicken McNuggets®, the Subway® Tuna Salad Wrap, Wendy’s® Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger and Burger King’s Chicken Tenders followed respectively.

So there you have it: food ranked according to messiness. "We are what we eat"; but we don't want to have it all over our laps. See also: Feeding Kids on Road Trips - Tips

*Taco Bell funded this study, which was undertaken by Kelton Research.