Waitrose began rolling out a major reformulation of its breakfast cereals range today, with more than half of its products undergoing significant reductions in sugar.
The move, which comes less than two weeks after Public Heath England held talks with retailers and suppliers to call for a 20% cut in cereals’ sugar content by 2020, will reduce sugar by an average of 15% in 27 own-label cereals at Waitrose.
Rice pops, malted wheats and multigrain hoops are all in the list of products to get new reformulated versions with some products, such as bran flakes, seeing sugar content down by 30%.
Waitrose said it meant more than 90 tonnes, or 22.5 million teaspoons, of sugar a year will have been taken out of its own-label cereals. The company claimed there was no difference in either price or taste.
Waitrose has been carrying out a wider reformulation project which has already seen sugar taken out of chilled juices, yogurts, soups, cordials and fizzy drinks.
Some cereals such as choco pops, corn flakes and honey nut cornflakes had already seen significant reductions in 2015 and early 2016, it said.
The latest reformulations meant it had cut over 92.5 tonnes of sugar from Waitrose own-label cereals to date.
“As cereal makes up 60% of breakfasts, this is a great way to help customers reduce the amount of sugar in their diet,” explained Waitrose senior nutritionist Dr Emma Williams.
“Our customers want a healthy start to the day and reducing sugar is one way for us to help them achieve this. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day with many breakfast cereals fortified with valuable nutrients, such as B-vitamins, vitamin D and iron.”
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