Presweetened dry breakfast cereals: potential for dental danger.

Sugar concentrations were measured by enzymatic methods in twenty-eight presweetened breakfast cereals. Means for the various sugars were in essential agreement with recently published gas-liquid chromatography results and also with the sugar values expressed on the labels of these cereals. Thus, accurate and reproducible analytical methods are available for sugar measurements in foods; sugar levels in foods can now be assessed with confidence and the information disseminated to interested food purchasers. Oral retention time, as measured by salivary sucrose determinations, was prolonged after ingestion of these cereals directly from the box; oral clearance was more rapid, when the same subject drank a sugar solution of the same concentration. Presweetened cereals are candidates for frequent ingestion as snacks, due to their candy-like taste. This fact plus the high sugar levels in these cereals and the tendency to prolonged intraoral retention, automatically classifies these materials as potential dental hazards, when used as snacks. It is not implied that this is the case, when these products are eaten at mealtime with milk.