Which? has just published another comparison of the top-selling breakfast cereals. Cereals have for too long embodied wider problems that make it difficult to eat healthily: marketed as healthy when high in sugar or salt, poorly labelled and heavily marketed to children regardless of nutritional quality.

Through the Responsibility Deal, the government is relying on companies to take voluntary action to make it easier to eat healthily so it is timely to see if any progress has been made since our 2009 comparison.

This time, we chose the top-selling brands and own-label equivalents of the three top adult cereals (Kellogg’s Special K, Cornflakes, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes) and the most popular children’s cereal (Coco Pops).

The good news is that there has been action on salt, including some dramatic changes. Morrisons’ Honey Nut Cornflakes now contain 0.7g salt per 100g, compared with 1.8g in 2009 Tesco Special Flakes have 0.8g instead of 2.0g and Kellogg’s Coco Pops have dropped from 1.15g to 0.75g. Just eight cereals failed to meet the 2012 salt targets (1.1g). Cornflakes are a particular issue - although some own-brands are meeting the target. Also missing the mark were Kellogg’s Special K, Rice Krispies and Nestlé Cheerios.

Sugar is a far less positive story - and the worst offenders were kids’ cereals. Kellogg’s Frosties had the highest sugar level, at 37%. But some cereals that thrive on a healthy image, like Kellogg’s Special K and Bran Flakes, were also high in sugar. The only low sugar options were Nestlé Shredded Wheat, Quaker Oat So Simple Original and Weetabix.

There’s no hard and fast rule about whether own-label or branded cereals are healthier. Own-brand Crunchy Nut-style cornflakes and Special K-type flakes had less sugar and salt than their branded equivalents. But the results were more mixed for Cornflakes and Coco Pop-type cereals, and Lidl’s cornflakes stood out as being highest in salt.

This wouldn’t be so bad if it was easy to work out which cereals were healthiest. But it isn’t. Eight had no front-of-pack nutrition labelling at all and only 15 included traffic light colour coding. This may just be one product category, but it is an important one and serves to highlight wider issues that must be addressed. Progress is being made on salt, but more action is needed. Sugar levels must be cut, particularly in children’s cereals.

Companies have a responsibility to use an honest labelling scheme that allows people to see exactly what they are buying. The Department of Health will be consulting on nutrition labelling shortly and wider adoption of traffic lights is essential.

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