Consumer group CHOICE has lashed out at the makers of ‘liquid breakfast’ drinks for making a raft of dubious nutritional claims about their products. Despite being regularly marketed as a high-fibre option for energetic people, many brands were found to provide a sugary and unhealthy breakfast comparable to chocolate bars.
In its report, CHOICE investigated 23 liquid breakfast products including popular brands such as Sanitarium’s Up & Go, Devondale’s Fast Start, Dairy Farmers’ Oats Express and Kellogg’s liquid cereal drinks. All of the brands CHOICE tested fell down in the ‘high fibre’ stakes, which is often the chief selling point of a liquid breakfast.
“Liquid breakfasts have on average 1.5 per cent fibre, which is well below the 10 per cent benchmark for high fibre,” CHOICE spokesperson Tom Godfrey said. “It is grains away from the 39.5% fibre offered by bran cereals.”
Some products were also found to contain high amounts of sugar despite being marketing as a healthy brekkie option. Of the 23 products tested, ten contained more than 23 grams of sugar per serve, which is roughly the same as a chocolate bar.
In addition, the amount of energy was found to be insufficient for a complete breakfast, ranging from 700kj to 912kj (a regular meal is supposed to come in at around 2000kj).
“Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day and consumers shouldn’t be fooled into thinking liquid breakfasts are high in fibre or a good source of protein,” Godfrey said.
“A serving of oats with a handful of almonds and a sliced apple will give you about 11g of fibre; in some cases more than triple the amount of fibre available in liquid breakfast cereals.”
The take-home message from this is that advertisers will continue to circumvent consumer protection laws if they think they can get away with it. You should only choose a liquid breakfast product if you’re after a fast and convenient snack. For a healthy, high-fibre breakfast you’re better off sticking to proper raw cereal.
Comments
5 responses to “Liquid Breakfasts Sent To The Dogs”
So will there be an ACCC investigation and fines for outright lying? I thought not.. so move along then lol
You would think so; but if we’ve learnt anything from recent ACCC outcomes; they are almost totally clawless
Damn, doesn’t surprise me though. I can remember a long time ago trying some up and go as a breakfast thing before quickly rushing to work. It quickly felt almost the same as having no breakfast at all! 😛
disappointment… I bought some for the first time last week.
I’m OK with the low KJ tho, better than nothing if you are in a hurry. Possibly grab a muesli bar to?
Er… While 1.5% might not be fantastic.. It’s still ~15% of daily recommended fibre intake for women, and ~10% for men..
For an instant, obviously not meant to taste horrendous drink on the way to work.. that really doesn’t seem that bad.. If it were 10% fibre by volume, your average drink would be close to 100% of your recommended daily fibre intake in one sitting. Comparing it to solid bran cereals (obviously the absolute most extreme case) seems to be nothing but an attempt to sensationalise the story.. Which by some of the comments, seems to be sadly rather effective..
It also has 30-40% of daily requirements for basic daily vitamin intake across the board, carbs on very much average with any cereal (even healthy ones) and some of the highest protein levels of any cereal (not counting the milk, but probably only half people drink the milk of their cereal, so.. *Shrug*).
I mean.. I don’t think anyone’s arguing that a healthy breakfast undoubtedly does not come packed in foil and cardboard, shipped interstate/international… But what they do know is.. It’s not THAT bad, just perhaps a bit sugary.. Which probably half of all cereals are anyway.