Cereal is expensive. With some of the name brand boxes going for $4 to $5 a box. And a kid can go through a box in a week. A news channel did a study and asked a group of fifth graders to compare name brand cereals to their cheaper generic counterparts. They wanted to see if it was really worth paying the extra one to two dollars for the more expensive name brand cereal or if children would even be able to tell.
The kids in the study felt that they would be able to taste the difference between generic and name brand cereals, especially for their favorites. Most of the cereals looked the same but for the cereals that visually looked different they blindfolded the children so they could only tell by taste.
Here’s the results of the study:
- Cherrios – every child could tell the difference
- Lucky Charms – every child could tell the difference
- Mini Wheats – one child thought the generic version was name-brand
- Frosted Flakes – two children chose generic, the rest name-brand
- Fruit Loops – the results were split
- Cocoa Puffs – the generic received more votes
But how could the children taste the difference between the generic and name brands? The biggest difference was that the generic cereal was not as sweet and sugary as the name brands. Does that mean the generic brand is better for your children? Probably.
The article added that many of the adults in the newsroom couldn’t tell the difference between the generic and name brand cereals. Obviously their palettes are not as discriminating as the children’s are.
I don’t know if my kids would be able to tell the difference because I always buy generic Malt-O-Meal cereal. I know I’m cheap. But cereal is expensive and generic brands actually taste pretty good. I figure if they’ll eat it, why spend more money. Plus it helps that they don’t really ever get the name brand cereals, except at Grandma’s house, so they don’t know the difference.
Most of the children said that they would be willing to eat generic cereals if they tasted good enough. The study concluded that if you are going to buy generic cereals you’ll have to find those that your children will be willing to eat, because not all cereals are created equal.