Food · General Mills
Lucky Charms
016000275269
Low nutrition · Ultra-processed · per 100 g
Ultra-processed — built with extras a kitchen wouldn’t use. Better as a rare treat, not a Good rating.
Worse than 8 in 10 packs in Breakfast. The swap is on this aisle.
Council note
Ultra-processed — flavours, extras, a list a kitchen would not write. The colour (Tartrazine) is cosmetic, not food. A dietitian would not make this a weekday habit. Worse than 8 in 10 packs in Breakfast. The swap is on this aisle.
Watch-outs
Artificial colours
Tartrazine, Allura red AC
The pack
Ultra-processed — built with extras a kitchen wouldn’t use. Better as a rare treat, not a Good rating.
How often
Rarely
Who it’s for
Anyone comparing similar products in this aisle.
Skip if
It clashes with the notes you keep in your profile — allergens, diet, or extras you asked us to flag.
- This nutrition box cannot be rated Excellent
- Ultra-processed food cannot be rated Good
- A cluster of extras blocks Excellent or Good
At a glance
How often
Rarely
Nutrition box
Low
How processed
Ultra-processed
Extras
2 additives
Planet
Mixed footprint · 52/100
Organic
Not organic
Built in a factory with additives, flavours, or refined extras. Cannot be rated Good — a rare treat, not a habit.
Some good signs, some industrial ones. Not the heaviest in the aisle.
No shelf price logged yet. When a shopper posts a receipt to Open Prices, it lands here.
Why this number
Ultra-processed — built with extras a kitchen wouldn’t use. Better as a rare treat, not a Good rating.
Poor · 40/100 · nutrition low
- Nutrition quality41/100
- Ingredients64/100
- How processed16/100
- Organic0/100
What pulled it down
This nutrition box cannot be rated Excellent
This is a treat pattern. It can only scrape into low Good if the list is clean and it is not ultra-processed.
Ultra-processed food cannot be rated Good
A factory recipe — flavours, colours, or many additives — cannot be rated Good. A sometimes treat, not a daily habit.
A cluster of extras blocks Excellent or Good
A cluster of extras keeps this at Poor: a sometimes product, not a habit.
A weak-ish nutrition box
About 8 teaspoons of sugar in 100 g. Salt is moderate. Fibre is a genuine plus. A treat pattern.
Ultra-processed
Built in a factory with additives, flavours, or refined extras. A growing pile of research ties a diet of these to poorer health — not because one biscuit is poison, but because the pattern crowds out real food.
Tartrazine
-14Azo dye linked to hyperactivity in sensitive children. EFSA ADI 7.5 mg/kg.
Allura red AC
-14Widely used azo dye. Hyperactivity concern in children.
Azo dye mix
-82 synthetic colours (the Southampton six family) sit on this pack. Linked to hyperactivity in sensitive children.
Nutrition is half the number. Ingredients a quarter. How processed a fifth. Organic is a small bonus — it cannot rescue a sugary drink or a nitrite ham. How this compares to Nutri-Score
Nutrition · per 100 g
| Energy | 1600 kJ |
|---|---|
| Sugars | 32 gHigh Very sweet — about 8 teaspoons of sugar in 100 g. |
| Saturated fat | 0.5 gLow |
| Salt | 1.1 gMedium A moderate amount of salt. |
| Fibre | 6 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
Better neighbours
Same aisle, cleaner number. Ranked by how close the job is — not by who paid.
Ingredients
Whole grain oats, marshmallows, sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, salt, colours.
TartrazineE102
−14Linked to restlessness in some children. You don’t need yellow food to be yellow.
Extra care for children
Allura red ACE129
−14Widely used, often flagged for children. You can live without red cereal.
Extra care for children
Sugar
Low concernNot a toxin. A teaspoon is a teaspoon. The issue is how many hide in drinks and breakfast.
Oats
No concernA keep. Choose certified gluten-free if you are coeliac — oats are often processed near wheat.
Salt
No concernThe nutrition box already scores it. A pinch in cooking is not a packet of noodles.
Breakfast aisleMore from General MillsHow scoring worksPack facts (open data)
Healthie is a reading aid, not a diagnosis. If you have an allergy, always check the pack.