Posted on 10/15/2012 11:59:29 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
ORBE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Nestle SA and General Mills Inc will cut sugar and salt in the children's breakfast cereals they jointly market outside North America, the latest attempt by major food companies to respond to health concerns.
The two have been in a joint venture since 1990 to sell Nestle-brand cereals such as Cheerios in more than 140 countries outside the United States and Canada, markets which account for about half total global cereal sales of some $25 billion.
They say they will reformulate 20 cereal brands popular with children and teenagers by 2015, boosting wholegrains and calcium and aiming for average reductions of 24 percent in sugar and 12 percent in sodium.
The reformulation will affect about 5.3 billion portions of cereals sold each year.
The 50/50 joint venture called Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW) is the second-biggest breakfast cereal producer after Kellogg Co but is Europe's leading manufacturer of children's cereal. It had sales of 1.9 billion Swiss francs ($2 billion) in 2011.
CPW Chief Executive Jeffrey Harmening said the plan builds on efforts started in 2003 to improve the nutritional profile of cereals. The group has cut almost 900 metric tons of salt and more than 9,000 metric tons of sugar from its recipes since then.
"A certain number of moms don't want their kids to have as much sugar as they do right now, so that is a barrier for some to purchasing breakfast cereal," Harmening told Reuters at CPW's new global innovation centre in the Swiss town of Orbe.
The move comes as food and beverage companies seek to preempt tougher regulation due to the global obesity epidemic by offering healthier products or smaller portions.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I guess the starving kids in NORK can eat smaller portions of low-cal bark and grass?
The ones that say "healthy..." are the worst ones..
Their chocolate milk mix has a label on the side boasting about how it now has less sugar per serving. But, if you compare the small print between the old and new packages, the biggest change they made is in how much powder you’re supposed to use.
If you cut the serving size in half, suddenly it has half the calories. It’s magic!
Boxes stay at 18oz, content drops to 14.5oz, and prices rise 40% due to 25% ethanol content in gas, in 2015. That’ll go over well, like a fart in church.
From what I've been able to learn on the subject, there are far more verifiable health and medical problems associated with consuming too little salt than for consuming too much salt.
It's another "consensus" thing that's thoughtlessly repeated like Global WarmingTM and butter on burns.
Terribly overpriced convenience fodder. The generic version is usually identical at as little as a quarter of the price.
Even more ironic is that a lot of milk today is reconstituted from dehydrated, with fat added for flavor and blue dye for whiteness. Blecch.
I put salt, sugar, butter and sometimes heavy cream on my oatmeal.
Absent the availability of some or all of those things, I have been known to put ketchup or even Worcesterchire sauce.
Why don't they just chop up some styrofoam cups and box them as Cheerios? Who'd know?
The real problem is the bromide in the wheat flour.
I used to never salt my food. I do now.
If I wanted "healthy" I'd get a box of the Uncle Sam constipation cereal.
Eliminate salt for the sake of the few with high blood pressure at the cost of the healthy.
Eliminate sugar for the sake of the few with diabetes at the cost of the healthy.
Eliminate peanuts for the sake of the peanut allergic at the cost of the healthy.
Eliminate dairy for the sake of the dairy allergic at the cost of the healthy.
Eliminate wheat for the sake of the gluten allergic at the cost of the healthy.
Eliminate soy for the sake of the lecithin allergic at the cost of the healthy.
blah blah blah.
I’m ready for the unhealthy to just die so I can eat regular food again.
How about giving people a choice, if you don`t want to eat something then don`t buy it or eat it, or is someone putting a gun to your head and forcing you?
I don’t have a problem with that. since it appears the companies have made the decision on their own. However, if due to nanny government mandates — not good. If/when they notice a drop in sales... oh, well.
I guess when the kids come around for donations to UNICEF, I don't have to give $$ if we have a WORLDWIDE OBESITY PROBLEM.
New from CPW: 'Nothing - No sugar, No Taste, but loaded with vitamins and minerals. Free inside --coupon for a FREE bag of Sugar!!'
That Uncle Sam stuff isn’t bad once you make rice krispy treats out of it. Heck, most healthy cereals are vastly improved by the addition of melted marshmallows.
Not a thing. That's not what's happening here, now is it. From the article:
The move comes as food and beverage companies seek to preempt tougher regulation due to the global obesity epidemic by offering healthier products or smaller portions.
Or put another way, I suppose Moochel`s arm twisting is BAD but from agribusiness conglomerates and people like you its GOOD.
It is GOOD when the pressure comes from consumers like me. It is BAD when done to kow-tow to government social engineering.
But feel free to go right on kissing Michelle's fat ass.
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