In a clear contradiction to the dictum that all publicity is good publicity, cereal and snack giant Kellogg’s recently found their products under fierce open attack in Denmark, beginning with a ban of 18 vitamin-enriched products deemed “a potential health risk”. Jonathan Tisdall reports.
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In August 2004, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA) rejected an application from Nordic Kellogg’s, denying market entry to 12 new breakfast cereals and six energy bars, ruling that the levels of iron, calcium, vitamin B6 and folic acid were too high. The maximum levels were deemed to exceed the European Commission’s ‘Safe Upper Levels’ (UL), the calculations being based on a novel mixture of factors.
“The Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research has developed a model to estimate the intake of vitamins and minerals in the Danish population from non-fortified foods, a vitamin supplement and from the amounts of food that are expected to be fortified in Denmark,” Salka Elbøl Rasmussen, senior researcher at the DFVR (Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research) tells just-food.com.
“As an example, Danish boys have a very high intake of milk, and this sub-group therefore already reaches the UL for calcium intake, so there is no space left for food fortification with calcium in Denmark, to avoid any risks in this sub-group,” Rasmussen says.
Danes strict on additives
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By GlobalDataDenmark has long had the strictest European policy, along with neighbour Norway, towards food additives. Only a recent EU decision ended their policy of requiring proof of a need for vitamin enrichment and forced them to adopt the prevailing line, which is that products can only be kept out if they constitute a health threat.
The UK and Sweden were quick to soothe consumers that the Kellogg’s products, long on sale in those locations, were not dangerous. Kellogg’s Europe in Manchester attacked the decision to criticise fortification in general but notably did not comment on the crux of the matter here, the possible peculiarities of the Danish diet.
Perhaps the most worrying reaction for enriched food producers was an offhand remark by a Swedish food ministry official, Professor Åke Bruce, to Danish newspaper Politiken on the measurement of vitamin supplements to calculate ULs: “This is a completely new method, which we are considering using in new, future assessments.”
The controversy reignited after nutrition expert Dr Jerk Langer criticised the DFVR’s use of a nine-year old report to reach their vitamin pill figures and a DFVR functionary stated that some of their figures were necessarily guesswork. The DFVR responded with a clarification emphasising the soundness of their science and their conclusion, saying their study was based on new, more detailed, data that would be released later this year. The DFVR had the confidence to warn that the publication of their analytical model would “have considerable impact on international evaluations of food fortifications”.
High sugar and misleading adverts?
Then Kellogg’s came under fire on two new fronts, renewed focus on the sugar content of their breakfast cereals, and complaints about misleading advertising.
Kellogg’s decision to introduce a line of reduced sugar cereals had the unusual effect in Denmark of renewing the media focus on the company and their nutritional policies. The arrival of Rice Krispies Multigrain, with a lower sugar level of 20%, sparked another round of argument about sugar, obesity and diabetes, as well as reminding the public that traditional and popular Kellogg’s cereals had sugar levels around 40%.
Health experts were united in saying the new product was still far too sweet while Kellogg’s countered by presenting scientific information on sugar and Danish dietary habits on their website, and trying to put their products in perspective. “You get the same (sugar percent) result if you put two teaspoons of sugar on your oatmeal. Besides, you only get a small part of your total nutrition from cereals,” Christina Flensgaard, Nordic Kellogg’s nutrition director tells Politiken.
The Danish Consumer Council stepped up next, charging Kellogg’s with misleading advertising targeted at children, holding up the back-of-the-box reading material on their popular Frosties cereal to official scrutiny.
Frosties connected with healthy lifestyle
“Even though Frosties has a sugar content of 39%, it is described along with low sugar and nutritious products on the package. There is also text and pictures of training skateboarders, connecting Frosties to a healthy life style,” the CC complains to regional food authorities.
“Individually the six claims (on the box) are acceptable but when they are listed together on a box of Frosties they give the consumer – who is often a child – the impression that Frosties is a healthy product that provides a lot of energy. But this is not right,” Camilla Udsen, from the food department of the CC, tells Politiken. “The CC believes that Kellogg’s places Frosties – which is made of corn flakes and sugar – along with other healthy energy sources. This is misleading.”
Karen Laursen, nutrition chief at Nordic Kellogg’s, was surprised at the sudden reaction to the year-old text, and argued that both corn and sugar were energy-providing carbohydrates and that Frosties was not meant to be eaten “all day long”.
Tony the Tiger not so grrrreat
Tony the Tiger was next as the Consumer Council decided to include the Frosties television commercial in their complaint and repeated their view that the connection between active skateboarders and sugar was a misleading argument for healthy energy, and far from ‘grrrreat’ – complex carbohydrates like bread, pasta and rice were more effective for sport.
While Kellogg’s continues to rock with this series of Danish punches and arguments about the evidence rage on both sides, a couple of recent surveys complicated the picture still further.
A study by HealthFocus International found that Danes were the least health conscious food consumers in the Nordic region, and that one in three Danes did not give health a second’s thought when buying food.
But if those findings seem to hint that there could be a need for vitamin supplements, newspaper Berlingske Tidende found that Danish supermarkets shared official scepticism towards enriched products, even those already cleared by authorities. Only Dansk Supermarked had no reservations about treating the products on equal terms with traditional alternatives, while FDB, which owns Coop Danmark through Coop Norden, told the newspaper that they were opposed to enrichment on principle and hoped its Swedish and Norwegian branches would join to form a Scandinavian policy of not stocking such products.
If it ain’t broke…
While the furore continues around Kellogg’s in Denmark, the ban at least serves to indicate the country’s determination to adhere to its traditional policy towards additives and functional foods, which is to avoid anything not needed in a normal healthy local diet.
Norway’s Food Safety Authority took the opportunity to clarify its stance on the subject in the wake of the Kellogg’s-related fuss. The FSA must clear all applications for enriched products and they will follow the EU ruling in the same way as Denmark, by appraising every single new product to assess if it poses a potential health threat. The FSA warned producers that they should apply quickly, as their process would take time and a backlog was already building up.
