Food Giant - Not 'Cereal Offender'

Original posting, January 2006

Kellogg's says its cereals fall within recommended daily allowances.

Kellogg's has defended its cereals as perfectly safe after authorities in Denmark banned the sale of the company's vitamin-enriched products. The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration claims that if eaten regularly, the products could damage children's livers and kidneys.

The problem is SALT and SUGAR. And these are so cheap.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency has advised people to carry on eating cereals as part of a healthy diet.

Kellogg's had asked the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA) if it could add iron, calcium, vitamin B6 and folic acid to 12 cereals and six cereal bars. The amounts proposed could be harmful to general health or food safety. A spokeswoman for the DVFA said that an evaluation of the amount of vitamins and minerals consumed by people in Denmark meant that the proposed new levels would "have a high impact. The amounts proposed could be harmful to general health or food safety," she added. "If they put in less than they proposed, it might be otherwise."

BBC correspondent Nicola Carslaw said that UK health campaigners had long criticised Kellogg's for marketing cereals as healthy despite high salt and sugar levels.

In Denmark there is strong resistance and a belief that too many added vitamins can do harm. But there had been few concerns about vitamins because consumers are used to their products being fortified.

• "Under EU pressure, the Danish authorities are now having to consider applications from food companies to abandon this opposition. They're clearly holding firm."

EU pressure + food companies.

See any connection?

The Danes turned down proposals from Kellogg's to introduce everyday cereals enriched with the same levels of vitamins as in the UK and the rest of the world.

Sit up and listen people

Nordisk Kellogg's, the Nordic branch of the food giant, said it would challenge the Danes' decision, pointing out that the rejected products were being sold legally in other EU countries.

So what?

Legal doesn’t mean healthy

Maybe it is simply that the other EU countries have it wrong. And remember that edicts from Brussels leave little room to object. EU countries are forced to toe the line. Influential people will always willingly toe the line. It is political muzzling.

Don’t argue. Don’t pass go. Don’t collect your £200!

A spokesman for Kellogg's in the UK said there were "no issues" about people eating Kellogg's cereals.

Caution!

A spokesman for Kellog’s in the UK said so? It must be true then if he said so.

"They are well within the recommended daily allowances for vitamins and minerals and they have been well within those regulations ever since we launched 70 years ago."

It would be an interesting research project to determine the actual levels of all added constituents (vitamins, salt, sugar and all) that were present 70 years ago. But, of course, that can’t be determined since there are unlikely to be any actual samples - VERIFIED ORIGINAL - available now.

The Food Standards Agency is advising people to continue eating breakfast cereal "as part of a healthy balanced diet" and would be seeking further information from the Danish authorities, a spokesman asserted.

Earlier this year, the Consumer Association named big brand cereals, including some of those made by Kellogg's, that it said contained too much sugar, salt and fat.

Researchers compared the content of 100 popular cereals with advice from the Food Standards Agency. It found 85 brands had "a lot" of sugar, 40 had "a lot" of salt and nine had "a lot" of saturated fat.

The FSA recommends, yet doesn’t enforce. Check out the sponsorship and work out how companies operate in this apparently tightly controlled environment!

Wake up!