Power breakfast: Breakfast cereals are convenient but may not be the most healthy option

Children these days prefer branded breakfast cereals, all of which claim to be healthy and have added nutrients. To check whether the claims they aggressively market were true, The Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS), Ahmedabad, tested three brands (10 variants) of breakfast cereals in its in-house laboratory. The study was part of the International Junk Food Generation campaign launched by Consumers International (CI), London, a global federation of consumer organisations, against the marketing of unhealthy food to children.

The CERS study involved eight variants of Kellogg’s — Corn Flakes with Real Banana, Mango, Strawberry and Honey; Chocos; Chocos Smacks; Froot Loops; Frosties and one variant each of two brands of muesli — Bagrry’s SoHealthy Muesli and Good Earth Classic Muesli. These were tested for sugar, fat, sodium, calories, carbohydrate, protein and iron content. The nutritional and other information mentioned on the packs of the samples was also analysed.

The test method used was on a par with international standards suggested by the International Consumers Research & Testing (ICRT), London. Specifications laid down by the European Regulation on Health and Nutritional Claims (ERHNC) and the scales used by the Food Standards Agency in Britain for the establishments of traffic light labelling of foods were used as standards.

Sugar

According to the European Regulation on Health and Nutritional Claims (ERHNC), if sugar content is more than 12.5gm per 100gm of a food sample, it is considered high and therefore, the food is considered unhealthy. All the 10 variants of breakfast food were found to have an exceptionally high sugar content. Incidentally, not a single product had the sugar content (in percentage or gm) printed on the pack.

Kellogg’s Frosties had the highest sugar content (37.9gm/100gm) while Kellogg’s Chocos Smacks had the least with 26.8gm (more than double the level prescribed by the ERHNC). All the other samples were within this range.

Sodium

The sodium content in all the samples was acceptable (more than 0.12gm per 100gm but not more than 0.60gm), although five had borderline results of 0.6gm, which were close to the information declared on the packs.

Fat

According to the standards laid down by the ERHNC, foods that have 3gm or less fat per 100gm can be called low-fat while those that have till 20gm are within the acceptable range. Good Earth Classic Muesli, Bagrry’s SoHealthy Muesli and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with Real Banana have a fat content of 4.9gm, 4.8gm and 3.3gm respectively.

Interestingly, the products claimed on the packs that they were cholesterol free. Such claims mislead the consumer because vegetarian products may also contain cholesterol. Moreover, the fat that they contain can be turned into cholesterol by the body.

Labelling

Though the boxes of all the 10 products carried nutritional information, most of them made some dubious claims. Kellogg’s claims that its products contain iron up to 23.3mg per 100gm. When tested, it was found that four of its products — Kellogg’s Chocos Smacks, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with Real Banana and Mango and Kellogg’s Frosties — contained only 8.7mg to 12.3mg of iron.

Moreover, none of the brands used the traffic lights labelling method that makes choosing healthy foods easier. According to this method, a product high in ingredients such as sugar, salt and fat, for example, should have a red light (symbol) on the pack. Amber indicates that the food is neither too high nor low in such ingredients while a green light means that it is low in all these ingredients. Thus the more green lights a food has, the healthier it is. The guidelines dietary allowances (GDA) printed on breakfast cereal cartons can easily be highlighted using the traffic lights labelling method.

Packaging

Kellogg’s, Bagrry’s and Good Earth used colourful packets. Kellogg’s also used cartoon characters on the packs to make them more attractive to children. Kellogg’s Chocos and Choco Smacks had Coco, the monkey, on the pack, Frosties had Tony, the tiger, while Froot Loops had Toucan Sam on one side and a picture of the bird which could be coloured on the reverse.

Ideally, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and the Government of India should formulate and supervise advertisements and promotions addressed to children.

Rating and ranking

The products were not ranked as it was found that though high in calorie, protein, carbohydrate and iron (good for health), they were also high in sugar, which meant they were bad for health. So a ranking based on the overall performance of the breakfast cereals and mueslis would be misleading.

Manufacturer’s response

As a policy, before publishing the results, CERS conveys the test findings to the manufacturers for their views and comments. They receive the results of their own products only.

The sugar content in all the eight products of Kellogg’s was found to be high. In defence, Kellogg’s asserted that its “ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, including the pre-sweetened varieties, are nutrient dense, ‘low’ in fat and many of them are excellent sources of dietary fibre”. Kellogg’s also believed that the “ERHNCs were used only for advertising restrictions in the UK, and had not been adopted by any other European country. Also, they were not based on nutrition science”.

Kellogg’s has announced a Kellogg Global Nutrient Criteria, a standard for products marketed to children from six to 11 years of age, which, according to the company, was based on a broad review of scientific reports. CERS requested a copy of the criteria but did not receive a response.

For more information write to cerc@cercindia.org