Children’s cereals contain shocking sugar levels, report reveals

Some children's breakfast cereals are laden with more sugar than a bowl of ice cream and as much salt as a packet of ready-salted crisps, a damning study has found.

Typical portions of some were found to contain more sugar than a Cadbury's Flake, despite manufacturers' claims to be reducing the level of unhealthy ingredients.

Research by the consumer watchdog Which? found the vast majority of breakfast cereals offer 'poor nutrition'.

Using guidelines from the Food Standards Agency, the consumer watchdog gave just eight per cent a green light for healthy sugar levels.

Some 31 of the 100 most popular cereals surveyed contained more than four teaspoons of sugar per recommended serving. One teaspoon contains about 4g of sugar.

Just one of the 28 cereals marketed to children was not high in sugar. But even this was relatively high in salt.

High sugar consumption is said to be fuelling the obesity epidemic, which is leading to increased cases of heart disease.

Morrisons' Choco Crackles cereal tops the sweet mountain with more sugar to a serving than a Cadbury Flake, followed closely by Kellogg's Coco Pops Moons and Stars, Frosties and Ricicles, which were more than a third - 37% - pure sugar, according to the Which? report out today.

Even a bowl of Kellogg's Special K, which is meant to be eaten as part of a weight-loss diet, has 5.16g of sugar in a serving of 40g.

Also, the serving size used by most cereal makers to calculate nutritional value is just 30g, reducing the amount of sugar and salt people think they are eating.

Kellogg's told the Guardian newspaper: "Which? say reports like this are part of their drive to curb obesity yet they demonise breakfast cereals that, with milk, have around 170 calories and contain less sugar than a slice of buttered toast and jam or a cup of sweetened tea or coffee. While this grabs headlines and sells magazines it shouldn't be confused with sound scientific research that consistently shows that people who eat breakfast cereals, regardless of sugar content, are slimmer than those who don't."

Morrisons said it had a programme of development on its own-label brands and the two products highlighted by Which? had been reformulated.