Wrong Sugar content!

Bill Darwen · May 15, 2023

I guess I'm not the only Diabetic to check the sugar content in new to me foods. For me, 5% or less is OK, and anything over10% is definitely not.Recently my local supermarket, Lidl, started to sell a range of Crownfield breakfast cereals one of which was 'Special Flakes with Red Fruit'. The traffic light label on the front of the box said the sugar content was 5% However, I noticed that it also said that a 30g serving contained 4.2g of sugar. 4.2g is not 5%of 30g. Strangely, on the side of the box a more detailed list said the sugar content per 100g was 13.9%! Somebody wasn't paying attention when the teacher explained ratios and percentages. Some of the Crownfield alternatives displayed the same error, some did not, so take care. I;m still waiting to hear if Lidl or Crownfield are going to correct this mistake.

oldgreymare · May 15, 2023

Wouldn't_you_like_to_know said:
I guess I'm not the only Diabetic to check the sugar content in new to me foods. For me, 5% or less is OK, and anything over10% is definitely not.Recently my local supermarket, Lidl, started to sell a range of Crownfield breakfast cereals one of which was 'Special Flakes with Red Fruit'. The traffic light label on the front of the box said the sugar content was 5% However, I noticed that it also said that a 30g serving contained 4.2g of sugar. 4.2g is not 5%of 30g. Strangely, on the side of the box a more detailed list said the sugar content per 100g was 13.9%! Somebody wasn't paying attention when the teacher explained ratios and percentages. Some of the Crownfield alternatives displayed the same error, some did not, so take care. I;m still waiting to hear if Lidl or Crownfield are going to correct this mistake.

Perhaps what is even more important to check the total carbohydrate g per 100g food, not just sugar levels. "Carbs" are converted to glucose to be able to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

ajbod · May 15, 2023

25.5g carbs per serving, no thank you.

sgm14 · May 15, 2023

I would suspect the 5% means that 1 serving contains 5% of the "Reference intake" for a normal adult which is 90g of sugar and 260g of carbs.

See http://www.foodlabel.org.uk/label/reference-intakes.aspx.

Deleted member 527103 · May 15, 2023

A "serving" of breakfast cereal usually includes milk.
Is this included in any of the nutritional data on the box?

As I am weird and don't like soggy food, I used to eat dry cereal. As a kid, weetabix with butter on was a common breakfast for me. Since becoming a grown up (ish) and can chose what I eat, I realised I don't like cereal even without milk ... or with butter.

KennyA · May 15, 2023

Wouldn't_you_like_to_know said:
I guess I'm not the only Diabetic to check the sugar content in new to me foods. For me, 5% or less is OK, and anything over10% is definitely not.Recently my local supermarket, Lidl, started to sell a range of Crownfield breakfast cereals one of which was 'Special Flakes with Red Fruit'. The traffic light label on the front of the box said the sugar content was 5% However, I noticed that it also said that a 30g serving contained 4.2g of sugar. 4.2g is not 5%of 30g. Strangely, on the side of the box a more detailed list said the sugar content per 100g was 13.9%! Somebody wasn't paying attention when the teacher explained ratios and percentages. Some of the Crownfield alternatives displayed the same error, some did not, so take care. I;m still waiting to hear if Lidl or Crownfield are going to correct this mistake.

I suspect they were paying very close attention and chose to be deliberately misleading. They got a sale because of it. I've seen ice cream claimed as "low in sugar - only 4g (iirc)" per 'portion' - when the relevant portion size was 11g, or less than two level teaspoons.

EllieM · May 16, 2023

Bill Darwen said:
I guess I'm not the only Diabetic to check the sugar content in new to me foods. For me, 5% or less is OK, and anything over10% is definitely not.Recently my local supermarket, Lidl, started to sell a range of Crownfield breakfast cereals one of which was 'Special Flakes with Red Fruit'. The traffic light label on the front of the box said the sugar content was 5% However, I noticed that it also said that a 30g serving contained 4.2g of sugar. 4.2g is not 5%of 30g. Strangely, on the side of the box a more detailed list said the sugar content per 100g was 13.9%! Somebody wasn't paying attention when the teacher explained ratios and percentages. Some of the Crownfield alternatives displayed the same error, some did not, so take care. I;m still waiting to hear if Lidl or Crownfield are going to correct this mistake.

I think the maths is correct, as 4.2g is 14% of 30g, but as @sgm14 said they are being very misleading in that less than 5% refers to a daily portion of 90g of sugar....

I'm afraid that we all just have to read the labels very very carefully....

ps And welcome to the forums @Bill Darwen

HSSS · May 16, 2023

The front of boxes are misleading in general (who eats the serving size for one thing even if you were to madly agree with the reference intakes recommended?) and irrelevant to me as a diabetic as I need to know what will be load my blood with glucose and that’s all the carbs not just the sugar.

Prancy · May 16, 2023

I’ve tired all kinds of cold cereals (not sweetened) and no matter how carful I am to bolus correctly for it by counting the carbs, it’s never even close to touching my BG spike. I finally gave up. No more me. its just not worth it.

Wrong Sugar content!

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