INTRODUCTION:
Consumption of food rich in added sugars is positively associated with weight gain and childhood obesity. The aim of this study is to record the number of added sugars types and content in Ready-To-Eat (RTE) cereals sold in different markets and explore the possibility of establishing a search aid for the number of added sugars types by looking into the nutrients profile.

METHODS:
A total of 511 cereal products were collected from eight markets: Oman, Jordan, Turkey, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Finland and Estonia. The nutrition panel was used to extrapolate energy (kcal), total carbohydrates (g) and added sugars (g) based on 100g serving portion. Meanwhile, the ingredient label was used to identify the type and number of added sugars in these products in each market.

RESULTS:
This study revealed that there are 13 types of added sugars and the commonly appeared types in the ingredient labels of all cereals were sugar, glucose syrup and barely malt extract. It was found that the number of added sugars types can reach 5 types in a single product and there were only 76 RTE cereal products which contain only one added sugars type which represents 14.8% of the total 511 surveyed products. Analysis outcome of the results revealed no strong association between the number of added sugars types and the amount of added sugars in grams. Moreover, variation in nutrients profile (energy, total carbohydrates and added sugars) of RTE cereals was observed between the eight markets.

CONCLUSIONS:
A search aid cannot be established with cereals to identify the number of added sugars. Therefore, public awareness on appropriate use of the nutrition panel to check the amount of added sugars as well as scanning of the ingredient label to identify the number of added sugars types in these products deemed necessary.