Vitamins in Kellogg's cereals

[arsenal21 400]

I've noticed that the last few boxes of Corn Flakes I've bought don't have the usual list of vitamins, either in the ingredient list, or in the nutritional information box.

 

Does anybody know why this is? Have they really taken out the vitamins?? (Or, rather neglected to add them?) If so, is it only in Germany and why?

[Hutcho 2,227]

Yes, they have removed every and all vitamins from their cereals.

[Small Town Boy 6,672]

Nutritional information has always been a bit limited in Germany. For example a jar of soup stock I bought recently deliberately omitted the sodium/salt content, which in my opinion is the most important piece of information for that type of product. You can however normally find this information on the relevant company's website. In the case of the soup stock, it quickly became clear why this information was omitted, as it represented 66% of the RDA for salt.

 

Unfortunately in this case the Kellogg's website isn't very informative either, so call or email them and ask.

 

@Hutcho: I think he's referring to the added vitamins. Without them there's zero nutritional value in corn flakes, just a pile of salt and sugar.

[Mapleleafdude 4,292]

Not to be to anal but if your buying cereal for there vitamin content something is flawed!

 

Reminds me of a quote from some guy from "Food Watch". "Every parent giving their child cereal should be charged with inflicting bodily harm because of the sugar content which offsets any perceived health advantage by supplemented vitamins".

 

Something along those lines anyways. Not that we don't eat cereal but I would never kid my self...

[Keleth 9,279]

 

Yes, they have removed every and all vitamins from their cereals.

 

I have an image of €400 jobbers sitting by a band while cereals move past looking for rejects that they forgot to remove the vitamins from.

[thebrucer 544]

You want vitamins in cereal? We got yer vitamins in cereal...

mmmmmmm...Sugar Pops...

 

[arsenal21 400]

 

Nutritional information has always been a bit limited in Germany. For example a jar of soup stock I bought recently deliberately omitted the sodium/salt content, which in my opinion is the most important piece of information for that type of product. You can however normally find this information on the relevant company's website. In the case of the soup stock, it quickly became clear why this information was omitted, as it represented 66% of the RDA for salt.

 

Unfortunately in this case the Kellogg's website isn't very informative either, so call or email them and ask.

 

@Hutcho: I think he's referring to the added vitamins. Without them there's zero nutritional value in corn flakes, just a pile of salt and sugar.

 

http://nutrition.kelloggs-service.de/kelloggs/reproteam/download/AllProducts.pdf?load=2&filename=Produktinformation.pdf&quality=low

 

I found the above at the Kellogg's web site and it seems there are no vitamins listed for Frosties and Corn Flakes but most other Kelloggs cereals still have them.

 

I find it quite bizarre, the added vitamins have been there as long as I can remember, going back to the seventies at least. Is it only in France and Germany or is it worldwide, I wonder? And why?

 

I know Germans are mostly not curious about the food they eat, but I would have expected at least one of the endless production line of consumer/health/advisory programs that the Germans go in for to have at least mentioned this, perhaps accompanied by some Green party hippy-trippy-type scaremongering about food additives.

[BadDoggie 1,575]

EU laws are stricter than US labeling laws. Companies aren't allowed to advertise the "added vitamins" when they've been added to something that first had them taken out! Pop Tarts in the UK are now being stickered to cover up the "added nutrition" claims.

 

woof.

[neilg 21]

 

Pop Tarts in the UK are now being stickered to cover up the "added nutrition" claims

I may be wrong, but it looks like the claim on the box of Pop Tarts is covered up as it contains the words "Good Source of 7 Vitamins and Minerals" which is a claim that is difficult to substantiate, i.e. if it is actually a good source or not

They are allowed to state how much vitamins are in there if they wish, added or not.

[CopyWriter 1,040]

The recent (last year or so) change in labeling laws was more about standardization I think. For a while I had a tough time getting quality sport supplements--although they've always been labeled, the labels didn't conform the the new standards so the products were unavailable while the labels had to be redesigned. Could be something as silly as the font or whether the label is on the side of the box or the back. Then of course there are changes to what manufacturers are allowed to claim and what information they need to provide to support their claims, this is probably the type of issue that Kellogg's is facing.

[BadDoggie 1,575]

 

I may be wrong

I think you are because:

 

 

it looks like the claim on the box of Pop Tarts is covered up as it contains the words "Good Source of 7 Vitamins and Minerals" which is a claim that is difficult to substantiate, i.e. if it is actually a good source or not

Define "bad source". You'd be right if the statement was superlative -- a better source [than]... -- but it's not. They're claiming or implying that they provide good or improved nutrition when what they're selling is actually less nutritive. "Enriched white flour" is a good example: the name implies that the flour (from which most nutrition has been removed and that has then had some nutrients returned) is better than plain old normal flour.

 

woof.

[arsenal21 400]

 

EU laws are stricter than US labeling laws. Companies aren't allowed to advertise the "added vitamins" when they've been added to something that first had them taken out! Pop Tarts in the UK are now being stickered to cover up the "added nutrition" claims.

 

woof.

 

Which law is this? I know there are some labelling changes coming in later this year

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/labellingnutrition/foodlabelling/proposed_legislation_en.htm

but even then food producers have until 2016 to be fully compliant.

 

Maybe Kellogg's are early adapters.

[neilg 21]

Council Directive 90/496/EEC of 24 September 1990 on nutrition labelling for foodstuffs

 

Whereby, to be able to label a food as a "Good source" of a vitamin of mineral, it should generally contain more than 15% of the RDA:

 

 

As a rule, 15 % of the recommended allowance specified in ths Annex supplied by 100 g or 100 ml or per package if the package contains only a single portion should be taken into consideration in deciding what constitutes a significant amount.

Council Directive 90/496/EEC of 24 September 1990 on nutrition labelling for foodstuffs

 

Looks like it has nothing to do with removing nutrients and fortifying.

[Small Town Boy 6,672]

A simple phone call to the customer helpline will answer the question. I won't do it because I don't believe you should be relying on sugary processed food for your vitamin intake.

[Guest]

Mr.Kellog was against masturbation.

 

is this on the cornflakes packets?

[fraufruit 41,975]

I hate not being able to find sodium content here.

 

A great book on Kellogg is Wellville by T.C. Boyle.

[arsenal21 400]

 

A simple phone call to the customer helpline will answer the question. I won't do it because I don't believe you should be relying on sugary processed food for your vitamin intake.

 

I wouldn't expect you to do it, but thanks for thinking of me. In this age of internet communication, I don't understand why I should be expected to phone someone (who won't even understand me as they presumably don't speak English), when they could put the information out there.

 

If they don't, then they leave themselves open to rumours and speculation. For example, maybe they don't have vitamins because they're already using genetically modified maize? I don't think so, but please feel free to put forward an alternative hypothesis.

[arsenal21 400]

And just on the point of sugary processed food, cornflakes is about the best of what's available in regular supermarkets here, or at least it was until they stopped putting in vitamins. Corn Flakes have about 8% sugar whereas many cereals have 20-30%.

 

Back home, breakfast cereals seem to include more healthy options like Bran Flakes, All-Bran, Shredded Wheat, Weetabix etc. Also some of the mueslis back home have raisins whereas most mueslis here seem to have more chocolate than anything else.

 

I guess the cereals are aimed mostly at kids and teenagers and once Germans reach adulthood they revert to type and start eating sausage and bread roll for breakfast, whereas British Islanders tend to eat cereals all their lives.

[2B_orNot2B 8,451]

 

I hate not being able to find sodium content here.

 

Then hate no more by finding Natrium content instead.

 

Not until I was looking for baking soda* in Germany did I remember what our first chemistry teacher tried to explain about the Germans using Latin names for most chemical elements. We kids were too busy laughing about a copper called PlumBum so didn't care why, if common salt's official name was Sodium Cloride, it's elemental name would be reduced to NaCl.

 

*I had to ask an Apotheke what sodium bicarb/onate was called in German: Natriumhydrogencarbonat (NaHCO₃) aka Natron.

 

2B

[White Rose of Yorkshire 1,088]

I used to buy diabetic chocolates for a friend for Christmas. Apparently, the EU has now forbidden chocolate manufactures to print this on the labels as it has not been proved that so called diabetic chocolates are really ok for diabetics to eat.