Breakfast cereal research
Tuesday 5 June 2007
In January 2007, the Agency agreed the nutritional criteria for its traffic light labelling approach. This covered six out of the seven food categories where consumers said they would find front-of-pack labels most useful.
For the final food category, breakfast cereals, it was agreed that further consumer research was needed to improve understanding of how shoppers use and understand nutritional information. (This decision was reported in the Agency's technical signposting guidance, which was published in January 2007.)
To explore more fully consumers’ understanding, the Agency commissioned a piece of qualitative consumer research. This had the following objectives:
- to inform the development of criteria for breakfast cereals, with specific reference to sugars, for use with the Agency’s recommended front-of-pack nutritional signposting approach
- to examine consumer understanding of different types of sugars and how different labelling may impact on consumer choice of products high in fruit or milk
- to provide information for future review of the front-of-pack nutritional signposting criteria with respect to sugars
- to inform Agency decisions on the nature and degree of any consumer education required on sugars
Field work took place between 22 February and 19 March 2007. It involved 12 two-hour discussion groups with consumers from a mix of socio-economic groups and life stages across the UK. In addition one-third of participants were recruited to take part in a follow-up telephone interview.
The findings:
The research concluded that:
- Respondents agreed that differentiation between added and fruit sugars should be included in front-of-pack labelling of breakfast cereals.
- There was no obvious consensus about how best to make this differentiation but the strongest option was a single signpost for sugars, with additional text relating to fruit sugars.
- There was unanimous support among the groups that nutritional information on cereals should be based on a standard reference amount and that this should be on dry cereal, as opposed to cereal plus milk
- An additional analysis of respondents breakfast cereal consumption indicated approximately 85% of self reported portions were greater than the manufacturers' recommended serving size.
What happened next?
The Agency, together with supporters and adopters of traffic light front-of-pack labelling, used this research to inform their approach to the nutritional labelling of breakfast cereals. The key objective was clear, easy-to-understand labels, which help consumers choose healthier products.
The criteria developed bases the amber / red boundary on added sugars, in line with current dietary advice to limit intake of added sugars, but not sugars found within fruit or milk products. This will help consumers distinguish quickly between products that are high in added sugars, like frosted flakes, and those that are high in fruit, like no added sugar fruit muesli.
To ensure the consistency and clarity of the signposting approach, the criteria will apply across all of the Agency’s recommended traffic light signposting categories. The Agency has revised and re-issued its technical guidance for the approach to reflect this.
Related links
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