Iron Content and Nutrition Labelling and Claims of Malaysia Cereal Products: a Cross-Sectional Study

Chan, Hui Wen (2020) Iron Content and Nutrition Labelling and Claims of Malaysia Cereal Products: a Cross-Sectional Study. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

Text Chan Hui Wen_Full Text.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (1MB)

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate and compare the iron content of different types of cereal products sold in the Malaysia supermarket. This cross-sectional study surveyed on 2073 cereal products from seven different leading supermarkets in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There are 862 of 2073 cereal products that is presented with iron nutrition information. Mean iron content per serving is assessed on 12 different cereal products. Iron category that most cereal products distributed being the <= 5.00 mg category (n=808/862), followed by 5.01 – 10.00 mg (n=43/862), 10.01 – 15.00 mg (n=7/862), 15.01 – 20.00 mg (n=3/862) and >= 20.01 mg (n=1/862). RTE cereal shown to have the highest average iron content per serving of product. A rice product is placed first in the top 100 list, as for the top 50 list, a biscuits and crackers product placed first. More than half of the cereal products sold in Malaysia do not have iron nutrition information. Actions should be taken to encourage manufacturers to do proper nutrition marketing of their products to prevent confusion of consumers.