Breakfast cereals 'too high in sugar'

Breakfast cereals are "too high in sugar", according to a new report.

Consumer watchdog Which? said the majority of top selling cereals were laden with sugar - especially those targeted at children.

Researchers for Which? found that 32 out of 50 top brands were high in sugar.

Twelve out of 14 cereals aimed at children "would be more at home in the chocolate biscuit aisle", researchers claimed.

They said that Kellogg's Frosties was the "worst offender" with 37% sugar.

The consumer experts also said that cereals which were marketed as "healthy" such as Kellogg's All-Bran Bran Flakes and Special K, were also high in sugar.

Researchers did find that there had been a reduction in salt across the majority of cereals.

They said that Nestle's Shredded Wheat was the healthiest cereal, with low levels of sugar, fat and salt.

Retailers and manufacturers of the breakfast-time favourite have been urged by the consumer watchdog to label boxes more clearly and provide a wider variety of healthy cereals.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: "It is good news that the salt content of many cereals has been lowered.

"But Which? research has shown that once again, many top-selling breakfast cereals are too high in sugar.

"Parents will be particularly surprised by the fact that the majority of children's cereals contain so much sugar.

"More action is needed by retailers and manufacturers to provide a wider choice of healthier cereals.

"The Government also needs to encourage manufacturers to take action over sugar levels and provide consistent nutrition labelling that includes traffic light colour coding so it is easy to see exactly what you are buying."

A spokeswoman for Kellogg's said: "People know Frosties contain sugar, that's why they're called Frosties.

"And, if you want a lower sugar version of Coco Pops there is one - it's called Rice Krispies.

"That's the problem with these types of reports; they fixate on the rights or wrongs of particular products without seeing the bigger picture - that there's a huge number of cereals people can choose from when shopping.

"We're working hard to give parents lower sugar options and that's why we've just launched Mini Max - a new lower sugar kids' breakfast cereal."

Breakfast Cereal Information Service spokeswoman Dr Gill Jenkins added: "All in all, breakfast cereals are great nutrition and a good way to start the day.

"Breakfast skipping has become all too common in this country with one in five adults consuming no solid food at breakfast time.

"Eating breakfast cereals daily is an important meal occasion providing vital nutrients and less than 5% of sugar and 2% of salt to the daily diet."