Nutrient composition of ready-to-eat breakfast cereals

I. Khatijah and H. Patimah

Abstract

Nutrient composition of 16 ready-to-eat breakfast cereals were determined. Seven products were chocolate flavoured, five were fruit flavoured while the others were not flavoured. The ingredients and nutrient composition declared on the product labels were tabulated. Most of the nutrient composition on the product labels were in close proximation to the laboratory results. The products contained appreciable amounts of essential nutrients. Two products (B3 and BC5) had the highest fat contents of 20.8 ± 0.1 and 21.1 ± 0.2 g/100 g, respectively as well as energy contents of 475 ± 0 and 481 ± 0 kcal/100 g, respectively. The high amount of sodium ranging from 509 ± 3 to 812 ± 4 mg/100 g in six products (BC3, BC4, BC6, B1, B2 and B3) needs attention. One of the chocolate flavoured products, BC4 contained the highest amount of ascorbic acid (102.3 ± 2.0 mg/100 g).

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