As of: February 28, 2024, 8:00 a.m
By: Laura Knops
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Press
Split
Cornflakes are one of the classics on German breakfast tables.
However, according to consumer advocates, many products contain too much sugar or are overpriced.
Crispy, golden and healthy?
In contrast to many other breakfast cereals, corn flakes made from corn seem to be the better choice.
Corn flakes are particularly popular in many German households as breakfast or as a snack.
But even when they are combined with healthy foods such as milk, yogurt or fruit, cornflakes are unfortunately often full of sugar.
The questions arise as to how healthy cornflakes really are, which types experts recommend and whether the price has an impact on the taste.
Most cornflakes contain too much sugar
It doesn't always have to be the expensive branded product: branded cornflakes in particular often contain a lot of sugar.
© Pond5 Images/Imago
Cornflakes are hardly suitable for a healthy breakfast.
According to Stiftung Warentest
, most products contain
so much sugar that they are more likely to be considered sweets.
As part of their large-scale test, the experts examined a variety of popular products.
According to consumer advocates, of the approximately 110 corn flake brands, a total of 86 products are not recommended.
Reason for this: They exceed the
World Health Organization (WHO)
guidelines for sugar.
Accordingly, cereals for children in particular should contain a maximum of around 12.5 grams of sugar.
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There is now a wide selection of cornflakes in supermarkets, organic markets, discounters and drugstores.
Products from different brands are available to consumers.
Under certain circumstances, they pay more money for the brand names, as the consumer magazine
ZDF Wiso
found out.
However, in terms of taste, the expensive brands hardly differ from cheap discounter products.
Pollutant levels in cornflakes: Ökotest classifies nine products as unsatisfactory
In addition to sugar, many breakfast cereals are also contaminated with harmful substances.
The testers from the consumer magazine
Ökotest
2021 came to this conclusion. The 50 different cornflakes were tested for contamination with pesticides, acrylamide and other unhealthy ingredients.
While pesticides are used to control pests, acrylamide is created during hot roasting from sugar and the amino acid asparagine, which is naturally present in grains.
Acrylamide is classified as a carcinogen by the
EU Food Safety Authority
.
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The result of
Ökotest
: A total of 15 products were rated “very good” and 14 were rated “good”.
Five failed the test with “poor” and nine even with “unsatisfactory”.
In particular, the acrylamide contamination was criticized; other points of criticism included pesticides, mold toxins and high salt levels.
What was also surprising was that good quality does not have to have a high price:
Two of the cheapest cornflakes brands – “Crownfield Cornflakes” from Lidl (0.58 euros per 300 grams) and “Kornmühle Cornflakes” from Netto Marken-Discount (0.58 euros per 300 grams) – scored “very good”.
On the other hand, expensive branded products such as “Kellogg's Special K Classic” (2.99 euros per 300 grams) and “Nestlé Fitness 58% whole grain” (2.39 euros per 300 grams) only received a rating of “unsatisfactory”.