American Kids Get Extra Helping of Sugar in Cereal
Posted by Lisa in Marketing to Kids, tags: big food, food labeling, food marketing, Marketing to Kids
Photo Credit: Flickr/Beketchai
Shocking news hit the press this week. Many kids’ cereals are loaded with up to 50% sugar by weight. OK, nobody is surprised by this. But what did surprise me was that Consumer Reports survey found that the sugar contents of the same cereal brands are less in other countries. Does this mean that the parents of children in other countries won’t buy it? Or that the children in other countries have less of a sweet tooth?
While I know the packaging changes by market, I had no idea that cereal manufacturers adjust their formula by country. Wow! Am I naive. I’ve been concerned with big food’s $1.6 billion marketing budget to target kids, but I was overlooking the fact that they have dialed up the sugar content to keep the American kid’s sweet tooth strong.
With a little Googling, I was able to determine that in 2007 the European Union enacted stricter regulation on product health claims. In contrast back in 2003, the FDA loosened labeling restrictions to allow health claims on food packaging supported by less than conclusive evidence. Hmmm …
I’ve certainly seen the health claims on packaging. Products in my fridge and pantry are shouting Low-Fat! Whole Grain! and High Fiber! What I want is to be able to cut through the marketing crap garbage and find products I can feel good about. Kudos to Consumer Reports for doing this survey and providing some guidelines.
Consumer Reports defines low sugar as less than 4 gm per serving. Cereals rated healthiest were low sugar, low sodium and high fiber. Tops on the list were Cheerios, Kix, Life and Honey Nut Cheerios. Rice Crispies was rated Fair because despite having only 4 gm of sugar per serving, the cereal has no dietary fiber.
According to Nielsen, more Americans are reading nutrition labels and dieters do so more often. Americans are paying more attention to food labels making them an even greater marketing opportunity. Have you noticed that whenever an ingredient is reported as either good or bad, a flurry of products or new formulas is launched to capitalize on consumer perception. While a product claim may stress that it is free of a “bad” ingredient or have a “good” ingredient, the overall nutrition of the product isn’t reflected in those claims.
I am a huge label reader. Not only does my family have some weight issues, but we also have food allergy issues. Believe me, when I say there’s no such thing as a quick shopping trip for me. After absorbing this, I think my new shopping strategy is to simply ignore all the type that lives off the nutritional label.
If you want to avoid prepackaged cereals altogether, Derek at Eco Child’s Play has some suggestions for real food for high fiber, low sugar breakfasts. TheVoiceofMom has a review of EnviroKidz Organic cereal and Project Swole has a great list of healthy breakfast tips.
So moms, what cereal is in your pantry? How do you get your kids to try healthier breakfast options?
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