Breakfast Food that Sucks (Kellogg's Coco Pops Straws)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Kellogg's Coco Pops Straws
Date:	14/08/08 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They have artificially added vitamins

Disadvantages: Contain lots of sugar

According to Kellogg's, "Coco Pops Straws are the yummy way to slurp the milk at breakfast, slurp the milk then munch the crisp cereal straw!" The idea is that you suck the milk through the straw and then eat the straw. If you could design a food that had the sole purpose of ruining kid's teeth then this would it.

Kellogg's initially tried to advertise this product but the advert was banned after a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority made by the consumer group Which?. Kellogg's Coco Pops Straws TV advert was said to be misleading and socially irresponsible because it marketed a chocolate straw biscuit as a way to get children to drink more milk. According to Michelle Smyth of the consumer group Which? This is a prime example of how "junk food is marketed at children without parents realising it."

The TV advert sneakily tried to trick consumers into thinking that this product somehow was a healthy food choice. The voice over claimed: "How far would you go to get milk into your kids? Well here's an easier way. New Coco Pops Straws is a totally different kind of breakfast, delicious cereal straws with a yummy chocolaty lining, your kids won't be able to stop slurping. New Coco Pops Straws make milk more fun."

It was one of the many irresponsible and underhand marketing techniques that are still used to push unhealthy food to children.

Research has shown that the quantity of sugar that a child would consume every morning if s/he ate this product as a breakfast cereal would be the equivalent of a 'two finger Kit Kat' chocolate bar which contains 10.4g of sugar per bar. The straws contain 11g per serving, that is 12% of the RDA for an adult.

Kellogg's weak excuse is that a 31g serving should provide at least 17 per cent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals. The straws do have added complex B vitamins and magnesium. But they also contain 32g of sugar for every 100g.

There simply is no excuse to encourage kid's (or adults) to consume such unhealthy products and market them as a healthy breakfast option. Even if they contain added vitamin content, this can be provided by other more healthier foods.

The straws are priced at just over £2 for a 375g box

Summary: Breakfast food that sucks