Cereal has become, in just over a century, the quintessential American breakfast. Tens of millions of people start their day with a bowl of flakes, puffs, or crisps poured from a cardboard box .

There are over 1000 different cold cereal products one can choose from, and any given supermarket dedicates an entire aisle to these. Last year, Americans bought over Ten Billion dollars worth of breakfast cereal. This is a big business, with lots at stake for manufacturers, big and small, who fight for every sliver of market share.

Let’s remind ourselves that cereal is not the only option for breakfast. Whole wheat toast, banana, yogurt, cheese, fruit salad, a glass of milk, and eggs are a great start to a day, and don’t require much effort.  For many households, though, cereal is a morning tradition not easily broken. But can it be nutritionally improved?

As consumers are becoming more educated about health and nutrition, the cereal category is in flux, with each brand trying to convince us that its line of products is the nutritional Olympus. Despite small improvements here and there, most of the achievements are in marketing claims. Shoppers are now more confused than ever – with an overload of conflicting information – and no true means to decipher it all to make a good decision.

No more.

Today, we are happy to announce CerealScan™, an iPhone application that will help you choose a better, more nutritious breakfast cereal at the supermarket.

It’s dead simple to use: You launch the CerealScan application on your iPhone. It automatically scans a cereal box’s barcode (UPC).   You then see a product dashboard with concise, graphic information that helps you decide in 3 seconds if the cereal is healthy enough for you. If not, CerealScan shows 5 better choices.

Here is an example (see image). The scanned cereal scores only 2 out of 5. It is high in sugar and medium in sodium. It contains trans fats and controversial artificial colorings. Not good. Swipe your finger across the alternatives to view all 5 better options. Tap on an alternative’s image to see its nutrition dashboard.

How it works: We’ve culled over 2000 cereal boxes into the CerealScan database. The analysis and recommendations are fully automated. They are modeled on answering a simple question – “What would a dietitian recommend if she was standing there with you at the cereal aisle?” The implementation of that answer is by no means trivial. Thankfully a dedicated group of dietitians and programmers at Fooducate have been working on this project for quite some time. I think they’ve done a great job.

If you want to to learn more, there’s more information at the Cereal Scan Website. To get it on Apple’s iTunes click here.

What to do at the supermarket:

When it comes to cereal, the basics we’ve been writing about for the past 18 months have not changed. More fiber, Less sugar. No artificial colors and funny preservatives.

Now you have another option – you don’t need to remember anything, just bring your iPhone along with you to the supermarket and use CerealScan.

Try it out, we’d love to hear how CerealScan has helped you make a better choice. Comment below or email us: cerealscan at fooducate dot com.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

General Mills, one of the big 4 cereal manufacturers, including brands such as Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Trix, and Wheaties,  announced yesterday that it will reduce the added sugar in its products. More specifically, the sugar in cereals advertised to kids will be reduced to “single digit” levels, according to the press release headlines. Reading the fine print of the comapny’s release, which basically extols General Mills as the best thing to happen to healthy diets since the invention of food processing, we learn that “by spring General Mills cereals advertised to children will all have 11 grams of sugar per serving or less.”

What you need to know:

The first thing you should know is that “11″ is not a single digit. 11 grams of sugar is still almost 3 teaspoons of sugar, and that’s for serving sizes for 4 year olds.

Nonetheless, General Mills should be commended for taking a step in the right direction. If all manufacturers follow suit, maybe in 2011 they can do another down round, and reduce added sugar to 1 teaspoon’s worth.

Here are two further improvements that General Mills can make:

- remove artificial colorings from all cereals. Red 40 and others have been linked to hyperactivity in children.

- stop using BHT to preserve freshness. BHT is also suspected of causing hyperactivity and cancer.

What to do at the supermarket:

Your children do not need a sugar rush first thing in the morning. Look for cereals that contain less than 6 grams of sugar. You can always add more at home.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com

We posted a few days ago about how 80% of Kids Commercials on Nickelodeon are for junk food. Junk cereal is also in the mix. If you were wondering how bad the situation is, watch the spot below for Froot Loops and Apple Jacks [Hat tip to Change.org]. Anyone still believe that the food industry isn’t manipulating kids?

For decades, advertisers sold kids cereals as fun, but now they are appealing to a 5 year old’s health and nutrition concerns. Thank you, Kellogg’s, for misinforming our children, creatively, once again.

What you need to know:

Let’s forget for a minute the sexist role play (Male doctor, female receptionist..)

The cutesy commercial fails to mention that Froot Loops includes trans fat, is 44% sugar by weight, and contains controversial artificial colorings that may prevent  any of these kids from being able to concentrate long enough to learn about nutrition. Apple Jacks is not much better.

What to do at the supermarket:

Breakfast cereals should contain much more fiber (5 grams and up) and much less sugar (6 grams or less). A kid oriented cereal will usually not be up to par. But you can buy a “grownup” cereal and sweeten it at home with a teaspoon of honey or sliced bananas.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com

The launch of food industry backed Smart Choices Seal,  a front of package label designed to inform shoppers of more nutritious products, has been very controversial. The criteria deciding which products are “better for you” were set by a panel of representatives from companies such as Kellogg’s, Con Agra and Kraft, as well as independent scientists from health organizations and Academia.

However, something strange must have happened in those criteria-setting meetings, if the result was a seal of approval for Froot Loops and other uber-sweet products. Fruit Loops is 41% sugar by weight, contains a rainbow of artificial colorings, and some trans-fat to boot.

This is the classic story of  the fox guard the hen house, or the cat watch over the cream. Public pressure, as well as media coverage that was less than friendly seem to have an effect. Change.org mounted an email campaign in which thousands of people wrote to the independents, asking that they rescind their support for the program:

Thanks to change.org activists and a lot of attention in the media and across the blogosphere, both the American Dietetic Association and the American Diabetes Association have had their names removed from the Smart Choices web site.

You might notice that Smart Choices hasn’t done much to publicize the fact that neither group endorses the new marketing ploy (let’s call it what it is shall we?). Both of the ADAs, it seems, understand that they can’t in good conscience be affiliated with any sort of labeling that calls Froot Loops healthy.

(Thank you Marion Nestle for the h/t)

What to do at the supermarket:

Smart Choices and other marketing shticks will always await consumers on the supermarket shelves. Not sure if a product is as good as it claims to be? Check the nutrition panel and the ingredient list. Still confused? Drop us a line, and we’ll try to help…

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com

In a press release yesterday, Kellogg’s introduced a branded back to school resource for moms called Mom’s Homeroom:

“Having all the right tools is essential for learning, like knowing what your child’s learning style is so you know how to help them study,” said Victoria Tierney, elementary school teacher and a Mom’s Homeroom mom. “I also know that kids need to be ready to learn, and starting the day with a wholesome breakfast is a great way to start.”

read the entire propoganda…

Whenever we see a brand dominate a “free advice” site, we’re always on guard. We checked out both the website and the products being heavily pushed. Read more…

Horizon Organic, the country’s largest organic milk products distributor, has recently announced a new line of “all natural” products. This is dismaying to many fans of the organic movement, because it would cause an erosion in revenue and profit to organic farmers.

You see, “Natural” is an undefined term, at least from a regualtory perspective. Which means products labeled “Natural” will enjoy the Horizon aura of health, but cost far less to manufacture, reaping a hefty profit to Horizon.

The first products are toddler yogurts, called Little Blends, and are expected to roll out later this month. Milk Breakers, a boxed vanilla / chocolate drink is slated for later this year.

According to Horizon, their natural products will be produced “without added hormones, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.” [source: LA Times]

What you need to know:

This is a great marketing move by Dean Foods, the mega dairy corporation that acquired Horizon back in 2003. In professional lingo this is called brand extension. You take the well known spotted cow logo of Horizon Organic and plaster it on new line of products.

What’s deceptive here, is that the new product line is NOT organic. The amorphous “all natural” claim is not defined by the FDA or USDA, although a  an FDA spokeswoman said “the agency does not object to using the term on food labels ‘in a manner that is truthful and not misleading’ and if the product has no added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.”

But this is too open ended. For example, High Fructose Corn Syrup is considered by some manufacturers as a natural product, because it is made from corn.

“All natural” foods are one of the fastest growing product categories in the US in the past year. It’s no wonder all the big manufacturers are jumping on board. It’s great for sales, because it lets consumers feel good about their choice, even with no real backing.

At the end of the day, this move will deteriorate even further consumer perception of differences between organic and natural food. This ultimately hurts organic farmers, who are already struggling in a tough economy.

Horizon has previously been called out for production practices claimed to be out of line with organic principles. It seems that the bigger you grow as a company, the harder it is to adhere to your original beliefs and principles.

And don’t get us started on toddler yogurts. What’s the problem with junior enjoying a regular yogurt? Is it caffeinated? Does it have alcoholic content? But that’s the subject for another post.

What to do at the supermarket:

Don’t get duped by “Natural” labels. They do not necessarily mean the product is healthy for you. If you want no growth hormones, antibiotics, and free pastured cows, you’ll have to cough up the cash to pay for the more expensive organic products.

And if you are buying conventional, look beyond the front of package marketing hype and read the nutrition panel carefully. Look at daily values for nutrients and examine the ingredient list.  A high amount of fat and sugar in a product may count as natural, but they definitely do not make it a healthy food.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com