It is the most important meal of the day, but all too often, breakfast in the UK is far from healthy.
In this edition of Dispatches, reporter Jane Moore reveals how nutritious the nation's breakfasts really are and the marketing techniques employed by this lucrative industry. Manufacturers are using health claims to sell their breakfast cereals, drinks and bars.
Dispatches investigates the evidence provided to support these claims and asks if some of the healthy-sounding cereals and pro-biotic yoghurts are all they are cracked up to be.
Moore uncovers what is actually in your breakfast food. Do you really know just how much sugar and salt are in children's cereals, particularly those marketed as 'healthy'?
Moore finds that the unwillingness of retailers and manufacturers to adopt the traffic light systems recommended by food standards authorities is confusing things further. Even if you want to eat the right thing, it is not always easy to tell what that is.
She also tests the regulators' rules on 'healthy' branding by baking a cake that could still make many of the health claims made by cereals.
Moore examines the recent shifts in cereal marketing which enable manufacturers to stay ahead of the regulators. With advertising of sugary children's foods banned during kids TV programming, Moore discovers that their marketing has moved to prime-time TV and the internet.
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On TV
First Shown
| Date | Time | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 26 October 2009 | 8PM | Channel 4 |
Last Shown
| Date | Time | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 26 October 2009 | 8PM | Channel 4 |
