Australian consumer advocacy group The Parents Jury is interested in improving the food and physical activity environments of Australian children.

Recently they compared a few breakfast cereals to see how close the touted health claims were to what was really in the box. While the product brand names are slightly different than here, the corporations behind them are not (Kellogg’s, for example).

During our investigation, we identified some trends on how manufacturers use children’s cereal packaging. For example, in contrast to when Coco Pops appealed to children because it was ‘just like a choclate milkshake, only crunchy’, these days claims are mostly about the purported nutritional benefits, and not purely taste or enjoyment. This could be seen as a responsible move by the manufacturers, however as we discovered, the boxes still contain a bombardment of claims and ads on every panel.

We also observed that the cereals that rated worst on fibre, fat, sugar and sodium content tended to boast the longest lists of added vitamins and minerals, which could lead many parents into believing that a product is healthier than it is.

To find which products were labeled offenders click here…

What you need to know:

Sugar is one of the big problems with breakfast cereals. The cereal offenders covered in the Australian checkup contained 30% sugar by weight, which is terribly high.

The situation in the US is even worse. Comparable products here contain as much as 50% sugar by weight. Oh dear.

What to do at the supermarket:

Check the sugar content on the cereal box nutrition label. Divide it by the serving size. If the result is higher than 0.25 (25% sugar), look for another option

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