Planning a day out to a Kentish castle or wildlife centre this summer? Better bring a packed lunch if you want your youngsters to stay healthy.

A survey looking at the kind of food served up to children at visitor attractions across the country found many meals on offer were overloaded with fat and salt.

And while Kent and the south east's tourist attractions fared much better than the rest of the country, the local Trading Standards office said there was still room for improvement.

The survey took samples of 397 meals served at 220 UK leisure venues, including theme parks, museums and heritage sites, and many dishes contained high levels of fat, salt and calories, way above guidelines set by the School Food Trust.

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Kent Trading Standards (KTS) visited some of the county's castles, open houses and gardens, where children's meals ranged from calorie-packed sausage roll, chips and beans, containing 42g of fat and 3g of salt per portion, to the healthier option of cottage pie with vegetables, just 10g of fat and 0.6g of salt.

Portion sizes varied between from 157g to a hefty 348g.

Sue Harvey, lead officer for food and agriculture at KTS, said: "The findings showed that while some dishes served are high in fat and salt, healthier options were available.

"The results were not as excessive as some meals in the survey and…indicated that meals from the south east fared better on average in fat, saturated fat, salt and calories than other regions."

She added: "We are not trying to kill people's fun - part of a day out is having a nice meal and if kids want a burger and chips, that's ok every now and then, but there needs to be choice.

"Some people want a healthy alternative to the typical junk food that isn't always laden with so much fat and salt."

KTS declined to give details of which attractions they visited, and said they were "working with many of the sites" on improving standards.