Community
Print
British luxury supermarket chain Marks & Spencer (M&S) has launched a new cereal range with minimal ingredients, including corn flakes made with corn and nothing else.
Each product in the range contains six ingredients or less, including Multigrain Hoops (five ingredients) and Choco Hoops (six ingredients), as well as Corn Flakes (one ingredient). The range also includes a four-pack of white sourdough bread rolls made with five ingredients.
While M&S’s new cereals are labeled vegan, the bread rolls are labeled as vegetarian. A 100g portion of the single-ingredient corn flakes contains 7.4g of protein, 88.1g of carbohydrate, and 1.8g of fiber. It contains 0.8g of sugar and 0.7 g of fat.
“Enjoy breakfast the time-honored way with a bowl of our Corn Flakes,” writes the company on its website. “Lightly toasted for that crispy crunch, this gluten-free cereal contains just one ingredient – golden flakes of corn.”
Read more: M&S Plant Kitchen Launches New Products And ‘Upgraded’ Items
‘Clean’ ingredients and nutrition
So-called “clean eating” is a growing force in food production and retail, including within the plant-based space, and a recent report by Global News Wire described clean labeling as a “significant trend,” with consumers hunting for products with fewer, simpler ingredients.
M&S’s new cereals tap into concerns over processed foods. However, they also do not contain the vitamins and minerals that other cereals are fortified with.
Vitamin deficiencies affect a significant portion of the UK population. Deficiencies in vitamins B12, C, folate, and iron – all commonly found in fortified breakfast cereals – are widespread.
For example, NHS data indicates that hospitals admitted nearly 200,000 people in 2023-24 where the main reason was a lack of iron. This number was up 11 percent from the year before and up approximately 1000 percent from 1998-99, as reported by the Guardian.
An M&S spokesperson told the Grocer that the launch of its new ‘Only… Ingredients’ range is a “small launch.” Plant Based News (PBN) reached out to M&S for more information.
Read more: 5 Benefits To Food Processing
