Kellogg's wakes up to calls for curbs on salt

• Kellogg to reduce salt in cereals from this week - some brands by a quarter

• Salt industry say health benefits of reduced sodium inconclusive

Key quote

"It is important to remember that even after this reduction Kellogg’s Corn Flakes will still be classed as a product that contains a lot of salt, and a 50g bowl will contain around 0.9g of salt - more than a bag of crisps" - Penelope Gilbert, nutritionist for Consensus Action on Salt and Health

Story in full IT IS a recipe that has gone almost unchanged for decades, part of breakfast routine of millions around the world.

But Kellogg’s yesterday announced it was bowing to pressure from health campaigners and reducing the amount of salt in Corn Flakes.

It is the latest food company to respond to worldwide demand for fewer salty and fattening ingredients and the threat of legal action from consumers in the United States.

Earlier this year, Kraft promised to reduce the salt content of its Dairylea Lunchables snack by 2.5 grams to 2 grams a pack and to end advertising of biscuits and sugary drinks aimed at children.

The fast food chain McDonalds has also announced salt reduction targets, as part of its move to sell salads and fruit juices alongside burgers.

From this week, sodium levels in packets of Corn Flakes will fall by a quarter, along with some sister brands. Perversely, the move will mean Special K, which is sold with a health image, will now have more salt than the highly sweetened children’s favourite, Frosties.

Campaigners welcomed the move and called for other manufacturers to follow suit. But the salt industry said evidence of the health benefits of reduced sodium was inconclusive and accused firms of "pandering to the Food Standards Agency".

Kellogg’s said salt would drop from 0.7g to 0.55g in a 30g bowl of Corn Flakes - accounting for 9 per cent of the adult recommended daily intake. Salt in Frosties and Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes will also be reduced by a quarter.

It is recommended adults eat no more than 6g of salt a day. A six-year-old should have no more than 3g and a child under three just 2g.

The amount of salt in a 30g bowl of Frosties will now drop from 0.45g to 0.35g, with the same reduction in Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes. Levels in Special K, which is a rice-based product, will remain at 0.65g per 30g.

Penelope Gilbert, a nutritionist for salt reduction campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) said: "We are very pleased. We now look forward to seeing reductions in their other products.

Last month CASH warned that a British child’s typical diet, starting with cereal, could easily contain six times the daily recommended salt limit. Several foods it analysed, including Bernard Matthews Dinosaur turkey roll and Pepperami sticks, were saltier than seawater.

The FSA has set a target of reducing salt intake in adults to 6g a day by 2010. Ms Gilbert said this would avert 35,000 deaths a year from heart attacks and strokes.

The move is the latest change of policy by Kellogg’s, which has often been criticised by health campaigners, particularly because of its targeting of children. Kellogg’s yesterday claimed consumers preferred the low-salt Corn Flakes in a series of blind tests, but falling sales are more likely to be behind the recipe changes. Brands perceived as unhealthy have lost popularity in recent years. Sales of Frosties, the sweet cereal promoted by cartoon character Tony the Tiger, fell by 5 million last year. At the same time, Special K overtook Corn Flakes as Britain’s favourite cereal.

A spokesman for Kellogg’s said the company has had a salt reduction programme in place since 1998. He said: "What we’ve done is give people the opportunity to choose something low in salt that’s a healthier alternative."

The Food and Drink Federation said levels of salt in bread had fallen by 25 per cent since the 1980s, and a further 5 per cent in the case of sliced bread.

"Breakfast cereals have also seen salt levels reduced by 22 per cent since 1998," added a spokeswoman. "But in reality the industry can only really change as far as consumers are prepared to go."

The food industry has also been rocked by the threat of legal action in the United States from consumers who blame manufacturers for obesity. Last month a lawsuit was filed by a mother of two who claims Kellogg’s and Kraft intentionally misrepresent their products by getting consumers to think low-sugar cereals are healthier than their full-sugar counterparts.

Manufacturers are also suffering from an image problem thanks to documentaries, such as Super Size Me, about the long-term health effects of processed food.

Kellogg’s announcement is part of an industry fightback that includes intense lobbying of government. In the US, a federal bill called the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act was introduced before the House of Representatives in an effort to pre-empt future legal action.

Last year the FSA launched a 4 million campaign to raise awareness of salt consumption, including a series of TV, poster and print adverts featuring the animated Sid the Slug.

The Salt Manufacturers’ Association (SMA) failed to block the campaign, claiming the statement that "too much salt is bad for the heart" was misleading.

The SMA says high blood pressure is influenced by mineral deficiency as much as sodium intake, and warned that having too little salt could be as damaging as having too much.

Alyson Greenhalgh-Ball, health and well-being manager at Kellogg’s, said: "Although breakfast cereals contribute no more than 5 per cent of the average adult salt intake, we are committed to helping consumers reduce the amount in their diets."

Flaky tale of eccentrics who stumbled on a global breakfast sensation

DESPITE current criticism from nutrition campaigners, Corn Flakes began life as a health product devised by an eccentric family of Seventh-Day Adventists and medical practitioners in the US.

They were created accidentally by William Kellogg in the 1890s when he baked some rolled-out corn that had been soaked overnight. With his brother, Dr John Harvey Kellogg, he started the Sanitas Food Company to produce whole-grain cereals in about 1897.

Dr Kellogg, a medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan, ran a sanatorium focusing on nutrition, enemas and exercise. A radical advocate of vegetarianism, he never consummated his marriage, preferring instead to receive an enema from an orderly every morning after breakfast. He spent his honeymoon writing Plain Facts for Old and Young, a treatise on the evils of sexuality, and was at the forefront of a late 19th-century obsession with the possible dangers of self-abuse.

Dr Kellogg subjected his patients to a rigorous regime including early morning callisthenics and sessions on vibrating platforms designed to stimulate the inner organs. He created a high-powered enema machine that could put 15 gallons of water through the bowels in a matter of minutes.

Dr Kellogg’s sanatorium was satirised in T Coraghessan Boyle’s 1993 novel The Road to Wellville, later turned into a film by Alan Parker starring Anthony Hopkins as Dr Kellogg.

About 128 billion bowls of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are eaten worldwide every year in countries as far afield as Guatemala, India, Japan and Argentina.

They were even eaten aboard Apollo 11 during the first moon landing.