Assessing nutritional value of ready-to-eat breakfast cereals in the province of Quebec (Canada): a study from the Food Quality Observatory.

<bold>Objective: </bold>The Food Quality Observatory was created in the province of Quebec (Canada) in 2016. In this study, the Observatory aimed to generate a methodology to (1) test the use of sales data combined with nutrient values to characterise the nutritional composition of ready-to-eat (RTE) breakfast cereals offered and purchased in the province of Quebec (Canada) and (2) verify the extent to which a front-of-pack label based on the percentage of daily value (DV) for total sugar, as a strategy to improve the food supply, would be distributed in this food category.<bold>Design: </bold>Nutritional information were obtained by purchasing each RTE breakfast cereal available in the Greater Montreal area. Cereals were then classified according to their processing type.<bold>Setting: </bold>The nutritional values of 331 RTE breakfast cereals available in Quebec were merged with sales data covering the period between May 2016 and May 2017. A total of 306 products were successfully cross-referenced.<bold>Results: </bold>Granola and sweetened cereals were the most available (36·6 % and 19·6 %, respectively) and purchased (19·8 % and 40·9 % of sales, respectively). When compared with other types of cereals, granola cereals had a higher energy, fat, saturated fat, protein content and a lower Na content. A larger proportion of chocolate (65 %) and sweetened cereals (49 %) were above 15 % of the DV for sugar.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>This study showed that the methodology developed generates important data to monitor nutritional quality of the food supply and ultimately contribute to improve the nutritional quality of processed foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]