UK Food Body Criticizes Cereal Bars

LONDON (Reuters) - Cereal bars marketed as ``healthy'' alternatives to a proper breakfast could be bad for you, a British food campaign group said on Tuesday.

Tests on 18 popular cereal bars by the Food Commission showed that all were top-heavy in artery-clogging saturated fats or sugars and sometimes both. Worst of the bunch, says the Commission, was a Coco Pops bar, which beat milk chocolate with a 41 percent calorie haul from sugar, and a Tracker banana breakfast bar, loaded with 43 percent of calories from fat.

Also singled out in the report was a Rice Krispies bar which tests showed contained 29 percent of saturated fats. Additives such as colourings, flavour boosters, artificial sweeteners and preservatives, which are used in a variety of processed foods, also came in for a grilling.

``These artificial chemicals give unhealthy foods a huge marketing advantage, with longer shelf lives and attractive colours and flavours--but they are a dietary disaster zone,'' said Food Commission director Tim Lobstein.

Many breakfast bars were marketed as wholesome alternatives for school lunchboxes and sold on shelves next to breakfast cereals, Lobstein told Reuters.

``They would be better placed alongside confectionery on supermarket shelves,'' Lobstein said. A nutritionist for Kellogg's, the maker of the Coco Pops bar, said: ``Kellogg's cereal and milk bars provide essential vitamins and minerals such as iron and calcium which may otherwise be missed.''

``Yes there's fat and sugar but compared to other snacks -- such as a Mars bar or a packet of crisps -- there's less fat and sugar,'' said a Kellogg's spokeswoman.

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