The Sugar Cereal Policy Change

While eating my COOP purchased delicious organic granola, raspberries, and soy milk for breakfast I read an interesting article in the NYTs about The Kellogg's Company and their advertisements targeting children. Actually, the Times printed the same exact article twice, but one was printed in the Business section and the other was in the Media and Advertisement section. The brief summation of their new policy is this:

The Kellogg Company announced today that it will phase out advertising its products to children under age 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium.

Kellogg also announced that it would stop using licensed characters or branded toys to promote foods unless the products meet the nutrition guidelines.

It should be noted that these are voluntary changes. Well, voluntary after being threatened by a couple of angry parents, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. I'm certainly not against these policy changes, but digging a little further into the guidelines I found myself taking issue with some of the details.

The guidelines state:

Foods advertised on media—including TV, radio, print, and third-party websites—that have an audience of 50 percent or more children under age 12 will have to meet Kellogg’s new nutrition standards, which require that one serving of the food has:

• No more than 200 calories;

• No trans fat and no more than 2 grams of saturated fat;

• No more than 230 milligrams of sodium (except for Eggo frozen waffles);

• No more than 12 grams of sugar (excluding sugar from fruit, dairy, and vegetables).

In addition, Kellogg will not:

• Advertise to children under 12 in schools and preschools.

• Sponsor product placements for any products in any medium primarily directed at kids

under 12;

• Use licensed characters on mass-media advertising directed primarily to kids under 12, as a basis for a food form, or on the front labels of food packages unless those foods meet the nutrition standards;

• Use branded toys in connection with foods that do not meet the nutrition standards.

But when reading the NYTs article, I learned the following:

1. Eggo frozen waffles are exempt from the Sodium regulation

2. Kellogg could still advertise Frosted Flakes to children because it has 11 grams of sugar

3. Kellogg said it would introduce Nutrition at a Glance labels on the top right corner of cereal boxes this year.

My response:

1. Why are eggo waffels exempt? Which other items are exempt?

2. Frosted Flakes has *only* 11 grams of sugar per serving? That's shocking. Will they reformulate their products so that they all fall under the 12 gram of sugar per serving since children are their most reliable market (i.e. Cococrispies has 14 grams of sugar. I'm sure it's not that difficult to change the amt. of sugar to be slightly less than it already is)? And besides, 11 grams of sugar is still ridiculously high. Plus, nobody ever eats the suggested serving size.

3. Most people don't know how to read the nutritional facts even if in a pretty snapshot on the top right corner of a product. I'm sure that there are plenty of research based articles measuring the general population's ability to read nutritional information federally mandated to be listed on all food items. I'm sure I can find one before the day is over. :-)