Red alert for cereal bars as bad for you as chocolate

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Fitness fanatics eat them for a quick breakfast and parents choose them for children’s lunchboxes. Yet despite their wholesome image, many cereal bars contain so much sugar that they would qualify for red “junk food” alerts on packs under the traffic-light labelling system devised by the Food Standards Agency. A survey of 20 well-known cereal bars by the consumer watchdog Which? found that each one would be classified as “high in sugar” and would require a red warning logo. More than half the bars also contained high levels of saturated fat that would require a red alert. A Kellogg’s Fruit ’n’ Fibre Bar, for example. contained 10g of sugar, more than a McVities Penguin bar, with 9.7g, and not

far off a Nestlé two-finger KitKat. Jordans Original Crunchy Honey & Almond Bar contained the most fat overall, 6.8g. But the bars with the most saturated fat were the Nesquik Cereal & Milk Bar and the Nestlé Golden Grahams Cereal & Milk Bar, each with 2.1g of saturated fat. These contain more saturates than a Mr Kipling Almond Slice cake. Researchers at Which? magazine decided to investigate cereal bars after a study in July found that three quarters of 275 breakfast cereals contained high sugar levels. Weetabix Weetos 20g Cereal Bars contained 8.2g of sugar and Kellogg’s Coco Pops Cereal & Milk Bars 8g of sugar, both more than the sugar in two McVitie’s HobNobs biscuits. Neil Fowler, the editor of Which?, said: “Although the packs are plastered with wholesome images and claims, the 20 bars scrutinised were all high in sugar and more than half were also high in saturated fat “These findings are worrying given the

recent report that showed that obesity in Britain is more prevalent than in many other European countries.” The bar with the least sugar (5.6g) and least fat (1.6g) was Nestlé’s Fitnesse Original. This and Jordans Frusli Raisin and Hazelnut bar came out best for saturated fat, at 0.7g per bar. In a statement in the Which? report, Kellogg said that it had been assumed “that eating cereal bars as a snack is a problem when, in fact, the consumption of high carbohydrate snacks between meals has been shown to lower overall daily calorie intake and helps reduce hunger”. Nestlé said it had been cutting saturated fat in its cereal and milk bars and planned further cuts. The Nesquik bar now has 2g of saturates and Golden Grahams 1.9g per bar. The company said that both provided important nutrients. Jordans said that to cut the fat level it would have to use artificial additives, which was against its policy of using only natural ingredients. It

added that 87 per cent of the fat was from oats and nuts, which were “good” fats essential for health. Peter H

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