Bran flakes may be classed as junk food under new government reforms designed to promote healthy eating.<\/p>\n
Britain has for decades been one of the world\u2019s largest consumers of puffed, flaked and sugared breakfast cereals, despite warnings over the years that they might not be nutritious.<\/p>\n
Officials want to update the UK nutrient profiling model (NPM) to include naturally occurring \u201cfree sugars\u201d, alongside refined sugar, when determining what is healthy or unhealthy.<\/p>\n
Bran flakes typically contain added glucose from natural ingredients such as corn or wheat starch to make them more palatable, so it is likely they will be deemed a \u201chigh in fat, salt or sugar\u201d (HFSS) food under the new system.<\/p>\n
Dean O\u2019Brien, the managing director of Kellanova (formerly Kellogg Company), told the Telegraph the proposed plans had \u201cthe potential to unintentionally undo years of work and investment by food companies to encourage healthier choices\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last decade, Kellogg\u2019s has reduced sugar by 27% and salt by 22% in its cereals, and under current regulations all of our children\u2019s cereal, and four of our five bestsellers, are deemed healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, under the newly proposed plans, cereals such as bran flakes, which are high in fibre and low in saturated fat, would be re-classified as less healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien added that breakfast cereals are \u201cnutritionally dense\u201d and Kellogg\u2019s cereals are \u201cfortified with vitamins and iron\u201d.<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said previous nutrition rules were 20 years old and did not \u201creflect the latest dietary advice\u201d, adding that the \u201cnew model shifts the focus from total sugars to free sugars and promotes diets higher in fibre\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cObesity and poor diets rob children of the best possible start in life, and this is about supporting parents to raise the healthiest generation of children by restricting the advertising and promotion of junk food,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently consulting on applying the new model to the advertising and promotions restrictions and will consider all feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is not the first time popular cereals have been flagged by nutritionists. In 2009, a survey by the consumers\u2019 organisation Which? of 100 cereals found typical portions of some were found to contain more sugar than a Cadbury chocolate Flake, despite manufacturers\u2019 claims to be reducing the level of unhealthy ingredients.<\/p>\n
Many brands perceived to be healthy, including Kellogg\u2019s All Bran, Bran Flakes and Special K, also had high levels of sugar at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bran flakes may be classed as junk food under new government reforms designed to promote healthy eating. Britain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-498848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}