Some cereal brands in Ireland have not been disclosing the ‘total fat content’ according to the Food Safety Authority.
The report revealed that breakfast cereal nutrition labels “cannot be totally relied upon to indicate true food composition.”
The FSAI examined a cross-section of 200 breakfast cereal brands to determine the accuracy of their nutrition labels in line with European guidelines.
The types of products sampled during the investigation were oats, flakes, granola, cereal bars, and Museli.
“The study found declared nutrition labels were mostly in line with European Commission guideline nutrition labelling tolerances for saturated fat, sugar and salt content of breakfast cereals.”
However, 28 of breakfast cereals brands were outside EC guideline nutrition labelling tolerances for total fat in relation to “reformulation” of food sold on the Irish market.
Food reformulation is when producers reduce ingredients like different fats, sugar and salt in processed and packaged food in order to improve its nutrient quality.
Under the Healthy Weight for Ireland: Obesity Policy and Action Plan 2016 – 2025, “voluntary food industry reformulation targets for energy, saturated fat, sugar and salt are to be agreed by the Obesity Policy Implementation Oversight Group.”
The monitoring of food reformulation is a complex process that has been approached in different ways by different countries.
A common approach is the use of declared nutrition labels to monitor nutrient content changes in foods over time.
However, in response to the findings of this report - which show that some cereal nutrition labels “cannot be totally relied on” to list the actual food composition - the FSAI will now be “fact-checking” brands on a regular basis.
