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Clean-label cereals prompt fortification debate

Marks & Spencer has caused a stir with the launch of a range of breakfast cereals in the UK containing minimal ingredients.

The star of the line-up is cornflakes, made with corn and nothing else. The newly designed box simply reads: “Corn Flakes. Only 1 Ingredient. Corn 325 g.”

The upmarket food retailer’s Multigrain Hoops product contains five ingredients – again, listed in large font on the front of the packaging: oat flour (115 g), corn flour (109 g), brown rice flour (56 g), date syrup (19 g), salt (1 g).

Also in the range is a Choco Hoops product, which contains six ingredients – the five in the Multigrain Hoops plus cocoa powder. The cereal boxes also carry information regarding their nutritional content in the bottom right-hand corner.

“M&S has always led the way on having the cleanest food – and with this new range, the team has pushed the boundaries again,” said Alex Freudmann, managing director at M&S Food.

The standard cornflakes made by the retailer are fortified, with an ingredients list that includes maize, sugar, salt, barley, malt extract, iron, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, riboflavin, thiamine, folic acid, vitamin D, and vitamin B12.

The one-ingredient product is more than four times the price of the standard.

The move has prompted a debate about fortification of foods and ultra-processing. Clean-label foods will be a “huge trend” in 2025 and onwards, explained one clinical nutritionist on social media, who asked: “While the idea of simpler, less processed foods is appealing, is removing essential vitamins and minerals the right move?”

Strong support for fortification

Fortification has certainly played a key role in public health for many years.

In the UK, many families – particularly those on lower incomes – rely on fortified cereals for key nutrients that can be difficult to obtain from diet alone. Fortified breakfast cereals are a significant source of iron in British diets, for example.

Ali Morpeth, co-founder of the Planeatry Alliance and a registered nutritionist, called for more communication and “influencing” around the positive role of added ingredients via fortification – which would ensure that demand for “better-for-you” and clean-label products does not create market dynamics where products become less nutritionally adequate.

“Food fortification is a tool to help people meet nutritional needs,” she added.

A secondary analysis of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey, published in 2022, showed that among people consuming a diet without fortified foods, 21 to 45% and 5 to 29% had respectively mineral and vitamin intakes below requirements.

Among those consuming a diet with voluntarily fortified foods, prevalence of nutrient inadequacies decreased by between 3 and 13%.

“Voluntary fortified foods but not supplements made a meaningful contribution to intakes of vitamin and minerals, without risk of unacceptably high intakes,” the authors wrote in the Journal of Nutritional Science.

Fortification and ultra-processing

Fortification of plant milks is also being debated as scrutiny of processed and ultra-processed foods increases. One in three UK consumers drinks plant-based milks, which are often – but not always – fortified with calcium, vitamin D, and iodine; however, there is no standard formulation.

Concerns have been raised by the food industry that the debate over ultra-processed foods is overly simplistic. Indeed, at the International Food and Drink event recently there were reportedly questions about whether fortification equals ultra-processing.

The nuance over the nutritional qualities of foods is at risk of being lost. As one nutritionist put it: “A clean-label option is great, but maintaining fortified alternatives ensures accessibility for those who need them.”

Around one in six adults in the UK has low levels of vitamin D, a deficiency of which can lead to rickets, bone pain, and disabilities. Many cereals are also fortified with iron and other vitamins.

New legislation introduced in the UK in November 2024 will require millers and flour producers to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid from the end of 2026.