LONDON — A little less than a year after announcing significant planned changes for its ready-to-eat cereals portfolio in the United Kingdom, Kellogg Co. said it has achieved a nearly 20% reduction in salt across its Special K cereal brand in the region.
Kellogg said more than 10 new recipes were developed before ultimately finding a formula with less salt but a similar taste. In fact, when tested with Special K fans, 59% said they preferred the new recipe to the old one, Kellogg said.
New equipment has been added to Kellogg’s plant in Wrexham, North Wales, to enable the company to make the new Special K recipe, Kellogg said.
“We are committed to making the best quality food and helping people to make better choices in the morning,” said Catherine Logan, well-being lead at Kellogg UKI. “It’s taken Kellogg’s food developers 12 months to reformulate the well-loved Special K cereal to include less salt but keeping the same iconic taste.”
Following the recipe change 70% of Kellogg’s Special K cereal portfolio in the United Kingdom is non-HFSS (high in fat, salt and sugar). HFSS is the classification for all food and non-alcoholic drink that is high in fat, salt, and/or sugar according to the Nutrient Profiling Model, managed by Public Health England.
As part of its Wellbeing Manifesto released in May 2021, Kellogg has committed to reducing sugar content by 10% from its children’s cereal portfolio in the UK, making them all non-HFSS by the end of 2022. Additionally, company plans call for salt in cereals to be cut by at least 20% by the end of 2022, a move that will mean four out of the top five selling Kellogg’s cereals eventually will be non-HFSS.
