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Manchester Evening News

Entertainment

Emma Gill

We tried the cereal range shoppers are ditching Kellogg's and Nestle for, but there's two I'd never buy again

Kellogg Nestle Clubcard Shreddies Heinz Tesco

When someone is faithful to a particular product or brand it can be difficult persuading them to swap.

Yet with the cost of living crisis impacting on household budgets, many shoppers are trying to find alternatives to the big brands.

We've already reported on people swapping their Heinz beans and soups for supermarket own brands and last week we shared how some shoppers are no longer buying Kellogg's or the other big breakfast cereal names after discovering the range at M&S.

One mum shared photos of the products in a budget Facebook group and was inundated with responses from people raving about the selection, which includes Corn Flakes, Choco Pops, Multigrain Hoops and more.

Shoppers have been praising the M&S cereal range (Manchester Family/MEN)

So how good are these big brand dupes? There was only one way to find out.

I bought 10 boxes from the M&S range, making sure to include the most popular varieties that people had mentioned, to then compare them with the real deal.

Included in my list were Honey Nut Corn Flakes, Corn Flakes, Multigrain Hoops, Special Flakes, Bran Flakes, Malted Wheats, Wholegrain Wheat Bisks, Choco Pops, Rice Pops and Fruit & Fibre Flakes.

First on the table was Special Flakes, aka Special K, and I have to say there was very little difference at all.

Special K just tastes a bit sweeter (Manchester Family/MEN)

The main thing that was noticeable with the M&S ones - and most of the range in fact - was they weren't as sweet, but I can't say that made them any worse. While I do generally have a sweet tooth, I find that breakfast is one time I can do without that sugar rush, I stopped adding sugar to my Weetabix a long time ago.

On checking the boxes, Special K are 5% sugar, while the M&S Special Flakes are 3%. They've also got less salt too, as have most of the others.

And that doesn't just apply to the Kellogg's cereals, but also with Nestle's Shreddies, which are 6% sugar and 5% salt compared with the respective 3% and 1% in the M&S Malted Wheats.

The M&S Malted Wheats are the closest I've come found to the real thing (Manchester Family/MEN)

Of course reduced sugar and salt content means nothing if nobody likes the taste of the stuff.

But almost all the ones we compared with the big brands were rated just as good, which was surprising given the price difference between them.

I've eaten a lot of Shreddies dupes over the years, but the M&S ones are probably the closest match I've ever come across, on appearance and taste. And apart from looking a bit shinier, you'd never know the difference between the versions of Honey Nut / Crunchy Nut.

There's very little difference between the M&S Honey Nut Corn Flakes and Kellogg's Crunchy Nut (Manchester Family/MEN)

The Wholegrain Wheat Bisks were a little bit smaller than the Weetabix, but nothing to write home about and they too tasted very similar.

We mentioned previously how multiple shoppers had praised the M&S Bran Flakes, hailing them a great swap for the real deal, especially with their 75p price tag.

I'm not really a Bran Flakes eater, but found they did taste the same - and, although the M&S flakes were thicker, I actually preferred them.

There were a couple from the M&S range that didn't go down too well though.

We weren't a fan of the M&S Multigrain Hoops (Manchester Family/MEN)

Neither me nor the kids were a fan of either the Choco Pops or the Multigrain Hoops. While the Rice Pops just about passed the taste test, these two not only tasted different to the real thing, but both had flavours none of us liked.

Eight out of 10 isn't bad though is it? And, when you consider how much you can save with the M&S ones, there's only one winner here.

A spokesperson from Kellogg’s said: ‘’“Kellogg's has been working hard to reduce sugar and salt in its cereals for many years. For example reducing sugar by 50% in Coco Pops in 2018.

“Today four out of five of Kellogg’s top selling cereals in the UK are non-HFSS (not high in fat, salt or sugar) and all of our UK children’s cereals will be non-HFSS by the end of 2023.

“Many Kellogg’s cereals also contain 50 per cent of your daily needs of Vitamin D to help people get more of this essential vitamin in their diet.”

We weren't too keen on the taste of the Choco Pops either (Manchester Family/MEN)

In response to shoppers turning to other brands, the spokesperson previously said: "Naturally, the taste of our cereals will be slightly different to own-brand products – in the same way own-brand products will also vary from supermarket to supermarket.

"Although seemingly similar, they are different recipes which, in many cases, are also made in different ways. Likewise, the price will also vary. Our consumers demand quality from a brand that they trust and that’s what we give them.’’

Prices - M&S vs big brand (we used Tesco prices for comparison)

Honey Nut Corn Flakes 500g £2 / Kellogg's Crunchy Nut 500g £3.30 (Clubcard £2.50)
Corn Flakes 500g 85p / Kellogg's Corn Flakes 500g £2.25
Multigrain Hoops 375g £1.40 / Nestle Cheerios Multigrain 540g £3.25 (Clubcard £2.50)
Special Flakes 500g £2 / Kellogg's Special K 500g £3.30 (Clubcard £2.50)