Kellogg’s to cut sugar content in cereal by 40%

Kellogg’s has vowed to reduce the amount of sugar in some of its highest selling children’s cereals by up to a staggering 40% by Summer 2018.

Popular cereals including Rice Krispies and Coco Pops will have their amount of sugar cut due to pressure to combat obesity; particularly in children and young people. They will also discontinue sugary products such as Ricicles.

The amount of sugar in Coco Pops will be reduced to 17g per 100g products from the 30g of sugar currently found in the popular cereal. The sugar content in Rice Krispies will also be reduced by 20% in the coming months.

Oli Morton, Managing Director of Kellogg’s UK, explained that in this day and age more and more people are looking at healthier alternatives in their breakfast foods due to the high amounts of sugar often found in cereals.

This sugar reduction is, of course, a step in the right direction but it’s also a drop in the ocean in terms of the high amounts of sugar found in common breakfast cereals. Though the government recommends that children should be consuming no more than 24 grams of sugar a day it’s clear that these guidelines are not currently being met. This isn’t helped by the fact that so many children start their day eating sugary breakfast cereals.

The government are pushing changes to help combat the growing issue of childhood obesity with foods such as chocolate, cereals and sugary biscuits having a sugar limit suggestion on the packaging. Public Health England have called for more manufacturers to cut the amounts of sugar in their products with a sugar tax already coming into force in April 2018 on soft drinks.