UK watchdog Which? has revealed that quite a few of the 15 leading cereal bars and breakfast biscuits including those marketed towards children are high on sugar content – some containing over 40 per cent sugar.
The watchdog also revealed that almost all of these do not contain any “clear traffic light nutrition labelling on the front” and that they don’t live up to their healthy image.
According to Which?, the sugar contents on the cereal bars ranged from as low as 15 per cent to over 40 per cent with Kellogg’s Coco Pops Snack Bar aimed at children being the worst offender at a whopping 42 per cent sugar. Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Fruit Breakfast Bars (Strawberry) contained 33 per cent sugar, while Quaker Oat So Simple Golden Syrup Morning Bars contained 15 per cent sugar – the lowest from all those surveyed.
“Others marketed at children, such as Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Bar and Frosties Bar and Harvest Chewee (Milk Choc Chip) were also high in sugar and saturated fat”, the watchdog noted.
“It’s worrying that cereal bars, especially those aimed at children or claiming to be healthy, contain so much sugar but most don’t make this clear on the front of the pack” said Which? executive director Richard Lloyd.
Llyod called for government intervention in a bid to tackle the issue and ensuring that manufacturers use traffic light nutrition labelling on such products.
As a part of World Consumer Rights Day, the watchdog also carried out a survey about barriers to healthier eating wherein it found that out of 2102 UK adults only a quarter (26 per cent) of people are satisfied with the action government is taking to help people to eat healthily, while only 23 per cent are satisfied as far as manufacturers are concerned.
Government intervention encouraging industry to lower the fat, sugar and salt content in foods and ensuring that food companies don’t use tactics that appeal to children to promote less healthy food came out as a top action in the survey.
