Table 4.
Nutritional information (per 100 g of product) of products with (YES) and without (NO) promotional characters for the children’s breakfast cereals (n 636) sampled from supermarkets in five different Western countries, 2013–2018
| Nutritional information (per 100 g of product) | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | New Zealand | UK | USA | Canada | ||||||||||||||||
| YES | NO | YES | NO | YES | NO | YES | NO | YES | NO | |||||||||||
| Promotional characters† | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR | Median, n or % | IQR |
| Number of products‡ | 23 | – | 46 | – | 14 | – | 27 | – | 62 | – | 40 | – | 98 | – | 97 | – | 33 | – | 51 | – |
| Serving size (g) | 30 | 30–30 | 33 | 30–44 | 30 | 30–30 | 30 | 30–35 | 30 | 30–30 | 30 | 30–40 | 30 | 29–31 | 30 | 28–32 | 30 | 29–31 | 30 | 30–40 |
| Products with added sugar (%) | 97·5 | – | 97·8 | – | 100 | – | 100 | – | 98·4 | – | 97·5 | – | 100 | – | 99·0 | – | 100 | – | 98·0 | – |
| Energy (kJ) | 1600 | 1570–1629 | 1600 | 1552–1628 | 1600 | 1575–1618 | 1590 | 1573–1628 | 1638 | 1608–1652 | 1637 | 1602–1795 | 1626 | 1580–1820 | 1680 | 1606–1800 | 1556 | 1478–1650 | 1650 | 1544–1680 |
| Fat (g) | 1·5 | 0·6–3·1 | 1·6 | 1·2–2·9 | 1·2 | 0·3–4·6 | 1·4 | 1·1–1·8 | 2·7 | 1·8–4·2 | 1·6 | 2·0–12·5 | 3·4 | 2·8–5·0 | 3·6 | 2·4–5·5 | 3·3 | 1·9–5·0 | 3·3 | 1·6–5·3 |
| Saturated fat (g) | 0·4 | 0·2–0·8 | 0·4 | 0·3–0·8 | 0·4 | 0·2–1·1 | 0·4 | 0·3–0·8 | 1·0 | 0·4–1·4 | 0·1 | 0·5–4·0 | 0·0 | 0·0–1·7 | 0·0 | 0·0–1·6 | 0·4 | 0·0–0·9 | 0·4 | 0·0–0·8 |
| Protein (g) | 7·3 | 6·7–8·3 | 8·0 | 7·0–9·3 | 7·5 | 6·3–8·8 | 7·1 | 6·4–8·3 | 7·5 | 6·1–8·7 | 8·4 | 7·0–9·1 | 6·3 | 3·5–6·7 | 6·3 | 3·5–7·3 | 6·9 | 6·5–9·3 | 6·9 | 6·7–9·3 |
| Carbohydrate (g) | 77·4 | 74·0–83·1 | 77·1 | 70·5–81·8 | 80·9 | 75·2–84·9 | 82·5 | 75·7–83·1 | 78·0* | 74·0–83·8 | 73·0 | 68·8–75·3 | 85·3 | 81·3–89·3 | 85·7 | 80·0–89·7 | 83·3 | 80·0–86·7 | 83·3 | 78·9–86·0 |
| Sugar (g) | 26·7 | 16·0–32·6 | 22·2 | 15·0–28·9 | 28·9 | 24·6–35·7 | 22·2 | 8·4–31·5 | 25·0 | 21·0–29·0 | 24·0 | 20·0–29·0 | 35·5 | 29·6–41·4 | 35·5 | 28·6–42·3 | 30·0* | 20·0–34·8 | 22·8 | 13·0–31·7 |
| Na (mg) | 312·6 | 145·6–407·4 | 293·2 | 135·1–360·9 | 330·0 | 103·8–520·0 | 360·0 | 288·8–537·5 | 240·0 | 128·0–298·0 | 216·0 | 166·0–276·0 | 492·4 | 417·3–596·6 | 466·7 | 383·3–566·7 | 464·3 | 166·7–551·7 | 428·6 | 363·6–573·7 |
| Fibre (g)§ | 4·0 | 2·4–8·2 | 7·0 | 3·1–8·7 | 1·0 | 0·7–2·7 | 1·1 | 0·7–7·8 | 1·5 | 0·7–2·1 | 1·9 | 1·0–2·6 | 3·7 | 3·1–7·1 | 3·6 | 1·8–7·1 | 6·7 | 3·6–7·9 | 6·5 | 3·3–9·7 |
| Products with NPSC‖ ≥4 (%) | 43·5 | – | 43·4 | – | 57·2 | – | 74·1 | – | 53·2 | – | 56·4 | – | 84·2 | – | 91·4 | – | 69·7 | – | 66·7 | – |
IQR, interquartile range.
*
P < 0·01 v. products without promotional material within the same country.
†
Included cartoons, animals or characters (fictional or non-fictional).
‡
Excluded multiple products of different package sizes within each country (one product of each was retained in the data set).
§
Calculated for products where fibre content was present in the Nutrition Information Panel.
‖
NPSC = Nutrient Profile Scoring Criterion as calculated using the Food Standards Australia New Zealand online calculator(25).