Kellogg will be changing the way it serves up breakfast and other snacks to Canadians.

The company announced this week that it's introducing "front-of-pack" nutrient labelling and changing the way it promotes its food products to children under 12.

If products don't meet a certain criteria for nutrients, they will either be reformulated or will no longer be marketed to children under the age of 12 by the end of 2008.

Right now in Canada, cereals like Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes fit the criteria, at 12 grams of sugar per serving, but Corn Pops do not, said Christine Lowry, vice-president of Nutrition and Corporate Affairs for Kellogg Canada

Pop Tarts, which are imported from the United States, don't meet the criteria either, as they go over the limit in fat content, she said.

"So we're going to be looking at those two products," Lowry said from Mississauga, after the initiatives were announced.

"We're going to be looking at ways that we can renovate to bring them to meet that standard, or at the same time we're also going to take a look at changing our marketing practices to children on those two products."

The new standard calls for a single serving of a product to contain no more than 200 calories, no trans fat and no more than two grams of saturated fat, no more than 230 milligrams of sodium and no more than 12 grams of sugar.

"Any product that does not meet that criteria, we will no longer be advertising those products to children," said Lowry, who mentioned that some Rice Krispies squares and waffles are also over the limits.

About 50 per cent of Kellogg products worldwide currently marketed to children don't meet the criteria, she said.

The changes come after U.S. parents and advocacy groups worried about child obesity threatened a lawsuit.

The practice of not marketing to kids under six will continue, the company says.

Kellogg Co., the world's largest cereal maker founded in 1906 and based in Battle Creek, Mich., is also extending its work on a labelling system pioneered in Europe and Australia by introducing front-of-pack labelling on ready-to-eat cereal packaging in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

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