ArticleHealth promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice2017
The healthfulness and prominence of sugar in child-targeted breakfast cereals in Canada.
Article in Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04294121 (Testing the Validity of a Novel Method for Identifying and Measuring Child-appealing Marketing on Product Packaging Using Focus Groups of School-aged Children), which is not on this map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Testing the Validity of a Novel Method for Identifying and Measuring Child-appealing Marketing on Product Packaging Using Focus Groups of School-aged Children (<13 Years) and Their Parents.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Food environment research in Canada: a rapid review of methodologies and measures deployed between 2010 and 2021.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Pooled it
- Policy gap: most child-appealing packaged food products in Canada will display a 'high in' front-of-package nutrition symbol.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Using artificial intelligence and computer vision to detect and monitor unhealthy child-directed food and beverage marketing: a data-driven study.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Nutritional Quality of Breakfast Cereals on the French, Belgian and Luxembourg Markets: Which Cereals for Children?Nutrients · 2024Observational
- Advertising expenditures on child-targeted food and beverage products in two policy environments in Canada in 2016 and 2019.PloS one · 2023Article
- Article
- The impact of characters like Tony the Tiger and other child-targeted techniques used in food and beverage marketing.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Benchmarking unhealthy food marketing to children and adolescents in Canada: a scoping review.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2022Article
- Nutritional value of child-targeted food products: results from the Food Quality Observatory.Public health nutrition · 2021Article
- Measuring the Healthiness of Ready-to-Eat Child-Targeted Cereals: Evaluation of the FoodSwitch Platform in Sweden.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Article
- Examining the Relationship between Sugar Content, Packaging Features, and Food Claims of Breakfast Cereals.Nutrients · 2021Article
- Quantifying Child-Appeal: The Development and Mixed-Methods Validation of a Methodology for Evaluating Child-Appealing Marketing on Product Packaging.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Breakfast Food Advertisements in Mediterranean Countries: Products' Sugar Content in the Adverts from 2015 to 2019.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Breakfast Habits of a Representative Sample of the Spanish Child and Adolescent Population (The ENALIA Study): Association with Diet Quality.Nutrients · 2020Article
- Examining the relationship between sugars contents of Canadian foods and beverages and child-appealing marketing.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2020Article
- Article
- Evaluating the Canadian Packaged Food Supply Using Health Canada's Proposed Nutrient Criteria for Restricting Food and Beverage Marketing to Children.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Commentary - Food for thought on food environments in Canada.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe objective of this study was to compare the nutritional content and healthfulness of child-targeted and "not child-targeted" breakfast cereals and to assess the predominance of added sugar in these products.
methodsWe collected data on the nutritional content of 262 unique breakfast cereals found in the five largest grocery store chains in Ottawa (Ontario) and Gatineau (Quebec). We noted the first five ingredients and the number of added sugars present in each cereal from the ingredients list. The various cereal brands were then classified as either "healthier" or "less healthy" using the UK Nutrient Profile Model. We assessed each cereal to determine if it was child-targeted or not, based on set criteria. Statistical comparisons were made between child and not child-targeted cereals.
results19.8% of all breakfast cereals were child-targeted, and these were significantly lower in total and saturated fat. Child-targeted cereals were significantly higher in sodium and sugar and lower in fibre and protein, and were three times more likely to be classified as "less healthy" compared to not child-targeted cereals. No child-targeted cereals were sugar-free, and sugar was the second most common ingredient in 75% of cereals. Six breakfast cereal companies had child-targeted product lines that consisted entirely of "less healthy" cereals.
conclusionThere is a need for regulations that restrict food marketing to children and youth under the age of 17 on packaging to reduce their appeal to this age group. Children's breakfast cereals also need to be reformulated through government-set targets, or through regulation should compliance be deemed unacceptable.
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