ABSTRACT
Objective
To assess sugar content and child-oriented promotional features on packaging among
cereals manufactured by companies with varying Children's Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative (CFBAI) participation.
Design
Ready-to-eat dry cereals (n = 159) were purchased from southeastern US grocery stores
in September 2018. Content analysis of 159 ready-to-eat dry cereal boxes, coded for
sugar content and presence of 8 child-oriented features.
Main Outcome Measures
Frequencies of each promotional feature and number of features per box, level of participation
in CFBAI, and sugar content by serving and ounce.
Analysis
Chi-square tests of independence analyzed correspondence between measures of sugar
content. Extent of features per box based on sugar content and CFBAI participation
were assessed with analyses of variance (ANOVAs).
Results
Most cereals (81%) contained <13 g of sugar per serving, meeting the sugar content
requirement for child-directed advertising. Cereals’ sugar content classifications
varied between sugar per serving and sugar per ounce metrics (P < .001). Among low-sugar per serving cereals, 28% were classified as moderate-sugar
per ounce, whereas 55% of moderate-sugar per serving cereals had high-sugar per ounce.
Games/activities and trade characters were especially common (62% and 49%, respectively),
particularly on high-sugar per ounce cereals (P < .001, respectively). Child-oriented features were rare on low-sugar cereals and
highest on cereals with higher sugar content per ounce produced by CFBAI-participating
companies (F8,158 = 12.33, P < .001).
Conclusions and Implications
Variable cereal-suggested serving sizes may contribute to consumers’ misunderstanding
of sugar content. CFBAI manufacturers continue to market cereals with high sugar to
children. Food and beverage regulatory policy could be strengthened if CFBAI companies
apply marketing pledges to brand mascots, adopt standardized metrics for sugar content,
and limit added sugar content to the recommended <6 g/serving target used by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children program.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 6,
2020
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
