Ten cereals on shelves this week. Read what’s really in them.
Surface A canonical weekly audit for the breakfast cereals category. The data on the back of every box, translated into the units the moment of decision uses — teaspoons of sugar per portion, salt sachets, fibre per 100g, FSA traffic lights, per-100g versus per-portion divergence. Pure data; no editorial commentary on this surface.
Data captured Monday 4 May 2026, 09:00 BST. Best-seller signal: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi online category listings; Kantar / NIQ UK cereal brand-reach rankings; Grocer Britain’s Biggest Brands. Methodology: scansmart.uk/methodology.
Ranked by retailer best-seller signal.
These are this week’s cereal best sellers as the retailers and brand-reach panels identify them. Ranking is not by sugar; ranking by sugar would put SCANSMART in the role of curator, which is the wrong role. The retailers and panels curate; SCANSMART analyses.
| Rank | Product / Brand | Pack / serving | Sugar (g/100g · tsp/portion) | Salt (g/100g · sachets/portion) | FSA RAG (S · Sa · SatF) | Fibre g/100g | Source · verified? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weetabix Original — Weetabix | 430g box · 37.5g (2 biscuits) | 4.2g / 100g · 0.40 tsp per 2-biscuit serving | 0.28g / 100g · 0.21 sachets per serving | S Green · Sa Green · SatF Green | 10.0g | OFF 5010029000016 · verified |
| 2 | Kellogg’s Corn Flakes — Kellogg’s | 500g box · 30g serving | 8.0g / 100g · 0.6 tsp per 30g serving | 1.1g / 100g · 0.66 sachets per serving | S Amber · Sa Amber · SatF Green | 3.0g | OFF 5059319030517 · verified |
| 3 | Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut — Kellogg’s | 500g box · 30g serving | 36.7g / 100g · 2.75 tsp per 30g serving | 0.77g / 100g · 0.46 sachets per serving | S Red · Sa Amber · SatF Green | 2.7g | OFF 5000127049307 · verified |
| 4 | Special K Red Berries — Kellogg’s (Special K) | 300g box · 100g serving (per OFF) | 16.0g / 100g · 4.0 tsp per 100g serving | 0.73g / 100g · 1.46 sachets per 100g serving | S Amber · Sa Amber · SatF Green | 6.6g | OFF 5059319003931 · verified |
| 5 | Kellogg’s Coco Pops — Kellogg’s | 480g box · 100g serving (per OFF) | 17.0g / 100g · 4.25 tsp per 100g serving | 0.64g / 100g · 1.28 sachets per 100g serving | S Amber · Sa Amber · SatF Green | 3.8g | OFF 5059319028958 · verified |
| 6 | Kellogg’s Frosties — Kellogg’s | 500g box | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | Best-seller signal (Kantar / NIQ brand-reach) · unverified |
| 7 | Shreddies The Original — Nestlé | 500g box | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | Best-seller signal (Kantar / NIQ brand-reach) · unverified |
| 8 | Cheerios — Nestlé | 375g box | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | Best-seller signal (Kantar / NIQ brand-reach) · unverified |
| 9 | Alpen Original Muesli — Weetabix (Alpen) | 560g box | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | Best-seller signal (Kantar / NIQ brand-reach) · unverified |
| 10 | Tesco Corn Flakes — Tesco (own-label) | 500g box | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | unverified this audit pass | Best-seller signal (own-label representative) · unverified |
FSA per-100g solids thresholds: sugar Green ≤5g / Amber 5–22.5g / Red >22.5g; salt Green ≤0.3g / Amber 0.3–1.5g / Red >1.5g; sat fat Green ≤1.5g / Amber 1.5–5g / Red >5g. Teaspoon of sugar = 4g; salt sachet = 0.5g. Fibre per 100g shown as the wholegrain-versus-refined dimension for this category. Serving size is the declared per-pack/per-OFF serving and is shown per row; where OFF declares a 100g serving the per-portion figures are stated per 100g. Unverified rows are named per best-seller signal but label data is NOT transcribed in this audit pass — flagged honestly, not estimated.
Label transcriptions, verified rows.
Transcribed verbatim from the Open Food Facts product page for each barcode on the capture date. Percentage groupings and additive names preserved as published. No editorial paraphrasing.
1. Weetabix Original
Wholegrain Wheat (95%), Malted Barley Extract, Sugar, Salt, Niacin, Iron, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid.
Source: world.openfoodfacts.org/product/5010029000016 · captured 4 May 2026.
2. Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
Maize, barley malt extract, sugar, salt, niacin, iron, vitamin B6, riboflavin, thiamin, folic acid, vitamin D, vitamin B12.
Source: world.openfoodfacts.org/product/5059319030517 · captured 4 May 2026.
4. Special K Red Berries
Rice (45%), whole wheat (36%), sugar, barley (4.5%), freeze dried fruits (4.5%) (strawberry, cherry, cranberry), malted barley flour, salt, barley malt extract, niacin, iron, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin D, vitamin B12.
Source: world.openfoodfacts.org/product/5059319003931 · captured 4 May 2026.
Methodology and sources.
Full methodology: scansmart.uk/methodology (linked above; reused across every Door 4 piece). Ranking by retailer best-seller signal and brand-reach market position. FSA per-100g solids thresholds applied. Teaspoons (4g sugar = 1 tsp) and salt sachets (0.5g salt = 1 sachet) as the visual conventions. Capture-date stamped on every figure: Monday 4 May 2026, 09:00 BST.
Sources: Open Food Facts product pages (per row in the table above); Tesco / Sainsbury’s / Aldi online category listings; Kantar / NIQ UK cereal brand-reach rankings; Grocer Britain’s Biggest Brands; FSA published thresholds for traffic-light calculation. No Wikipedia citations per SCANSMART Method institutional-grade discipline.
Unverified rows flagged honestly. Five rows fully verified with label data; five rows named per best-seller signal but label data NOT transcribed in this audit pass — not estimated. Remaining rows queued for the next cereals rotation.
Next entries.
Monday 18 May 2026: soft drinks. Teaspoons of sugar per can, per-100ml versus per-portion.
Monday 1 June 2026: bread. The salt-per-slice picture across the big-three.
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The decision is yours. SCANSMART is a food literacy and decision-support platform; it is not a medical device and does not provide medical or dental advice.
The Weekly Supermarket Checkout, Decoded · Surface A canonical · Monday 4 May 2026 · Methodology version v0.1 · SCANSMART Ltd, Co. No. 17128797, England & Wales.