Most cereal product manufacturers have acknowledged the call of consumers to cut the sugar (here referring to the generic use of the term for glucose, fructose, and sucrose), but progress still is slow in the area of sweetened cereals, especially those marketed to children. Slight advances have brought the numbers down—the past decade and a half or so has seen the number of RTE cereals containing more than 50% sugar fall from around half to just over a third. Considering some two-thirds of children who eat breakfast have cereal for that first meal, it is clear there is still a lot of work to be done.
According to Kantha Shelke, PhD, CFS principal of Corvus Blue, LLC, a Chicago-based food science and research firm, the challenge is that sugars add not only sweetness and flavor but also texture (especially by increasing crispiness and crunch), and stability to cereal products. They also suppress the bitterness and astringency of grains and enhance the overall sensory profile by developing color and aroma during the manufacturing process.