Cereal firms ‘ hiding high levels of sugar with poor labelling’

BREAKFAST cereal firms are ‘hiding’ the levels of sugar in their products by shunning traffic light labels, campaigners have said.

Dorset Cereals, Rude Health and Eat Natural have no nutrition labels on the front of their packs.

And while Kellogg’s, Nestle and Jordans do use labels, they are not colour coded as recommended by the Department of Health.

Poor labelling leads us to eat more sugar than is healthy, fuelling dangerous levels of obesity, campaign group Action on Sugar argues.

It added many cereal brands, often targeted at children, would have red labels for sugar if they were to use the traffic light system. It says all products should use the same traffic light labels – red, amber and green on the front of packs to identify high, medium or low levels of sugar, fat and salt.

The system is endorsed by the Department of Health because it helps shoppers identify healthy products at a glance.

Action on Sugar says we could cut 45 teaspoons of sugar per month ( 182g) by changing cereal brand and slightly reducing portion size. This can be done by swapping Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Honey & Nut Clus- ters, with three teaspoons of sugar (12g) per 45g serving, for Tesco Flakes & Clusters, with 1.5 teaspoons of sugar (6g) per 40g serving.

Action on Sugar said: ‘ Some granola cereals have no front of pack labelling at all. For example, Nature’s Path Pumpkin Granola contains 8g of sugar per serving, which is two teaspoons and would be a red traf- fic light.’ The NHS recommends adults have no more than 30g of added sugar per day.

Katharine Jenner, campaign director of Action on Sugar, said: ‘It’s scandalous that certain food manufacturers are still refusing to be transparent when it comes to front of pack nutrition labelling. If there is no front of pack label with one brand, shoppers should assume they are hiding something – so buy another brand instead.’

The Food & Drink Federation, which speaks for manufacturers, said firms are legally required to provide nutrition data, adding: ‘Far from hiding information, the vast majority of companies go beyond this legal obligation, to voluntarily provide clear, simple nutrition information front of pack.’