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Kids' Cereals Saltier, Report Says
Julie
Jargonin & Aaron O. Patrick
Wall Street Journal
October 21, 2008
Cereal makers that reduce the amount of sugar in kids'
cereals tend to ratchet up the salt content to improve
flavor, says a report expected to be released Tuesday by
Consumers International.
Cereal makers have been under pressure from consumer
groups to reduce the sugar content of their kids'
cereals, and Consumers International, in its report,
"Cereal Offenses," says "manufacturers are likely to add
salt to boost the flavor of the product, and may use
salt to maintain customer appeal when sugar levels are
reduced."
The London-based organization, an umbrella group
representing 220 consumer groups globally, focused on
products made by two of the world's largest makers of
cereal for children, Nestlé SA of Vevey, Switzerland,
and Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich. The group defined
children's cereals as those that feature cartoon
characters on the packaging, are endorsed by celebrities
popular with kids and are advertised on kids' television
programming.
A sampling of 100 grams of Kellogg's Frosties Reduced
Sugar cereal sold in various countries contains, on
average, 25% sugar and 1.5% salt -- more salt than is
normally found in potato chips. Those averages are
considered high by the U.K.'s Food Standards Agency,
whose guidelines Consumers International used for its
report. By comparison, 100 grams of Kellogg's Smacks
cereal contains an average of 44% sugar and less than 1%
salt, the report found.
Last year, after two advocacy groups -- the Center for
Science in the Public Interest and the Campaign for
Commercial-Free Childhood -- threatened to sue Kellogg
for marketing sugary products to young children, Kellogg
said it would reformulate certain products. For those
products that it couldn't get to taste as good through
reformulation, Kellogg said it would simply stop
advertising to kids under the age of 12 as of 2009.
Susanne Norwitz, a Kellogg spokeswoman who reviewed the
Consumers International Report, said she isn't aware of
any instances of Kellogg adding salt to products in
which it has lowered the sugar level. She said cereal
formulas for the same product can vary from country to
country based on consumer taste preferences and the
availability of ingredients, "however, in our recent
reformulation of select Kellogg's cereals, grams of
sugar were reduced by a range of one to three grams, and
sodium levels did not increase -- in fact, they were
reduced."
Kellogg so far has reformulated its Froot Loops, Corn
Pops, Rice Krispies, Cocoa Krispies and Apple Jacks
cereals. The new formulas began hitting store shelves in
June.
The report also takes aim at the overall sugar content
of cereals, saying that in many cases, children's
cereals contain more than twice the amount considered
high by the U.K.'s Food Standards Agency. Nesquik
cereal, for example, is made up of 36% sugar, on average
-- a higher level than what is found in an equivalent
amount of ice cream, Consumers International claims.
Nestlé didn't dispute the report's findings on sugar and
salt content in its products, including Nesquik. But a
spokeswoman said that even cereals with sugar can be
nutritional, and that it is unfair to blame cereal for
obesity when other factors are important, including
exercise. "I have three children. They eat Cini Minis [a
sugary breakfast cereal], but they don't eat them every
meal," Nestlé spokeswoman Hilary Green said.
Kellogg's Ms. Norwitz said in an email that "all of the
cereals identified by Consumers International are
low-fat, nutrient-dense breakfast options proven to be
beneficial as a part of a balanced diet. To put
Consumers International's information in perspective, a
serving size of yogurt (from a leading brand in the
U.K.) contains more sugar than a serving size of
Frosties cereal (15.9 grams of sugar in yogurt vs. 11
grams of sugar in Frosties)."
In the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world, many
big food companies have agreed to voluntarily restrict
some food advertising to children. In 2007, Nestlé said
it would no longer advertise to children under 6 years
old, and would only advertise healthy food to children
ages 6 to 12.
But governments are going further, prompted by
scientific studies linking childhood obesity to
junk-food ads. Earlier this year, the U.K. banned
junk-food ads from any television show aimed at children
up to age 15.
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