SPECIAL SECTION: Proceedings of the 2009 Cereals & Europe
Meeting: Whole Grain Global Summit
Promoting Cereal Grain and Whole Grain Consumption:
An Australian Perspective
Trish Griffiths1
ABSTRACT
Go Grains Health & Nutrition encourages consumption of grain-based
foods in Australia through activities that promote awareness and under-
standing of the role of grain foods in a healthy diet. Strategies drive the
message of the Australian dietary guidelines that a healthy diet should
include at least four servings of grain-based foods every day (1 serving is
equal to two slices of bread). The “Go Grains 4+ Serves a Day” program
promotes grain-based foods (refined and whole grain) through the media,
website information, resource development, school education, and food
industry involvement. Interest in whole grains is growing, reflected in a
shift in bread sales over recent years from white to whole grain. Manufac-
Go Grains Health & Nutrition (“Go Grains”) is the leading in-
dependent advisor in Australia for the role of grain foods in hu-
man health. Its core values are independence, integrity, and sci-
entific credibility.
The organization is a coalition of members from across the
grain foods industry, from growers to processors, manufacturers,
and marketers, based on industry collaboration and shared respon-
sibility for promoting consumption of Australian grains. Com-
mitment to Go Grains by members enables the development of
interactive relationships along the value chain.
Go Grains researches and communicates information about
grains, legumes, and health so that Australian consumers will be
encouraged to eat these healthy foods. Commissioned literature
reviews and expert reports ensure that communications are scien-
tifically based, while consumer research studies assist in identify-
ing issues and target audiences.
Go Grains works to raise the profile of grains and legumes
across multiple agendas (Fig. 1). The public face of the organiza-
tion’s activities is manifested in media campaigns, school re-
sources and programs, and consumer education materials. Behind
the scenes, the focus is on issue management and development of
government and media relations to ensure that Go Grains has a
voice at the table in the development of public health policy and
food regulations.
Consumer Awareness of Dietary Guideline Recommendations
Australian dietary guidelines include the recommendation to
“Eat plenty of cereals (including breads, rice, pasta, and noodles,
preferably whole grain.”
Australians are encouraged to eat at least four servings of grain-
based foods every day (Fig. 2) (NHMRC 2003) with the actual
amount being determined by age, gender, and activity level (1
serving is equivalent to 2 slices of bread).
Consumer research commissioned by Go Grains in recent years
shows relatively low awareness of the dietary guideline recom-
1 Go Grains Health & Nutrition, Sydney, Australia. Corresponding author E-mail
address: t.griffiths@gograins.com.au
doi:10.1094 / CCHEM-87-2-0159
© 2010 AACC International, Inc.
Cereal Chem. 87(2):159–161
turers are responding with new and reformulated whole grain product
launches and an increasing number of products carry packaging state-
ments about whole grain content. Australian food regulations do not per-
mit health claims in packaging or in advertising. In the absence of official
guidelines, Go Grains has developed a whole grain daily target intake for
use by food manufacturers in packaging. There are limited data publicly
available to describe consumption of grain-based foods in Australia. The
findings of a 2009 survey commissioned by Go Grains help provide in-
sight into consumption trends.
mendations for grain-based foods and some resistance to “eating
plenty”. Women, in particular, feel they are eating enough foods
like bread and breakfast cereals, and the challenge is to convince
them they need more (unpublished data). This is likely to be as-
sociated with lingering misconceptions about “low carb” dieting
that remain entrenched.
A survey commissioned by Go Grains in 2006 (unpublished
data) involving 1,200 respondents showed that ≈70% of Austra-
lians incorrectly believed they should be eating only three or
fewer servings of grain-based foods each day. Just 17% correctly
believed four or more servings each day is the right amount (14%
responded “don’t know”). The respondents who believed four serv-
ings to be “too many” were 49%. More recent data (unpublished
data) suggest there has been some improvement since 2006
because this number dropped to 34%.
Promoting the Dietary Guidelines “4+ serves a day” Message
The “Go Grains 4+ Serves a Day” program was developed to
create consumer awareness of appropriate consumption of grain-
based foods, both refined and whole grain. The strategy includes
media communications, and website information (www.gograins.
com.au), as well as a telephone information line (1300 GRAINS),
consumer resources, an education strategy, and food industry
involvement.
Fig. 1. Agenda for action for grains and legumes.
Vol. 87, No. 2, 2010 159
 The decision to encompass both refined and whole grain foods
is based on careful consideration of several factors. First, the die-
tary guideline recommendation refers to all grain-based foods, not
specifically whole grain. Second, consumer understanding of the
grain-food category is generally poor (compounded by “low carb”
misconceptions). Go Grains proposes shifting the focus toward
whole grains over time, after first helping people better under-
stand the overall grain-food category.
Education
The Go Grains Kids Design Challenge, a collaboration between
Go Grains and the Technology in Primary Schools teacher net-
work, takes the “4+ Serves a Day” message to students. Almost
1,000 students participated in the inaugural 2008 event, a curricu-
lum-based, fun, educational challenge that involved students in
real-life activities.
Younger students (ages 5 and 6) were challenged to develop a
media campaign to promote the “4+ Serves a Day” message to
their peers. Older students (ages 7 and 8) designed and promoted
a nutritious grain-based food product for sale in their school can-
teen. The Challenge culminated in a celebration event where class
outstanding achievements were recognized.
Evaluation confirmed that students who participated in the
Challenge developed a good understanding of the health messages
about grains and legumes with positive following benefits to
teachers and parents.
In 2009, the Challenge has been renamed the “Go 4 Grains Kids
Design Challenge” to further emphasise the core message.
Industry
The “4+ Serves a Day” logo (Fig. 3) provides the means to de-
liver the message directly to households. The logo is available for
Go Grains member companies to use on food packaging and in
communications such as advertisements and point of sale materi-
als on eligible grain-based food products. The aim is to make it
easier for consumers to identify and enjoy healthy grain-food
choices
Food products eligible to use the logo include bread, breakfast
cereals, pasta, noodles, crisp-breads, and plain grains such as rice,
oats and barley. All products displaying the logo meet independ-
ent criteria designed to ensure they are nutritionally sound and
suitable for everyday consumption.
Fig. 2. Recommended intake for grain-based foods in Australia (NHMRC
2003).
160 CEREAL CHEMISTRY
The first company to adopt Go Grains “4+ Serves a Day” logo
was the international food manufacturer Cereal Partners World-
wide, which owns the Uncle Toby’s cereal brands. This means the
“4+ Serves a Day” message reaches Australian consumers on the
5.5 million packs of Uncle Toby’s VitaBrits and 0.5 million packs
of Uncle Toby’s Shredded Wheat produced in Australia each year.
Uncle Toby’s Vita Weeties packs will soon also feature the logo.
A Go Grains 2009 survey (unpublished data) (n = 1,700) high-
lighted the potential for packaging information to influence con-
sumer purchasing decisions. In the survey, 49% of people said
they would be more likely to buy products featuring the Go
Grains “4+ Serves a Day” logo.
The Australian Whole Grain Perspective
Growing interest in the health benefits of whole grains has
helped stimulate a resurgence of interest in the grain food cate-
gory after the “low carb” diet trend. The change in the bread mar-
ket is reflected in bread sales shifting from white to whole grain,
with little overall change in the total size of the market.
Interest in whole grains is confirmed by consumer research
(unpublished data). Up to 44% of Australians claim to have in-
creased their consumption of whole grains over the past two
years, with 55% saying this consumption is specifically to reduce
disease risk. The majority of consumers are interested in learning
more about the benefits of whole grain food (76% are “extremely
or somewhat interested” and 62% consider label claims “ex-
tremely or very important” which is up from 42% in 2003).
The inclusion of whole grain claims on product packaging ap-
pears to have a positive impact on purchase intent, with 67% in
the Go Grains 2009 survey (unpublished data) survey saying that
they would be more likely to buy a product labeled as whole grain
(Fig. 4). This applies particularly to females and becomes more
important as people grow older.
Fig. 3. The Go Grains “4+ Serves a Day” logo.
Fig. 4. Influence of whole grain labeling on intent to purchase.
 Manufacturers are responding to this interest with new whole
grain product launches and product reformulations. Whole grain
claims on packaging are becoming more common, especially for
breads and breakfast cereals. There are limited data available to
confirm whether this interest in whole grains translates into be-
havior change.
Recent data estimating consumption of whole grains include
the 2007 National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Sur-
vey (NCNPAS) (CSIRO 2009) and the Go Grains 2009 survey
(unpublished data). The NCNPAS results showed that white
bread was the most common bread type eaten by Australian chil-
dren (45.9–54.6%), the proportion consumed increased with age.
Mixed-grain bread was the least commonly eaten (9.0–16.0%)
and the proportion of children consuming whole meal and mixed-
grain breads decreased with age.
The Go Grains 2009 survey estimated consumption of whole
grains to be ≈1.45 servings/day (this is 1.45 serving of a whole
grain food, not necessarily 1.45 × 16 g servings), accounting for
≈34.8% of daily grain food intake. Consumption of whole grains
is higher for men than for women. With the exception of the 35–
49 age group, there appears to be a positive trend in terms of
whole grain consumption with age, and the proportion of daily
whole grain serves increases with age.
Regulation of Whole Grains Claims
Whole grains are defined in Australian food regulations as “the
intact grain or the de-hulled, ground, milled, cracked or flaked
grain where the constituents – endosperm, germ and bran – are
present in such proportions that represent the typical ratio of those
fractions occurring in the whole cereal, and includes wholemeal”
(FSANZ).
There is no specific definition of “whole grain food” and no
permission for whole grain health claims on packaging.
In a regulatory environment that does not yet permit health claims,
Go Grains has taken a lead role in developing an industry stan-
dard that facilitates communication of information about whole
grain content. Based on assessment of the scientific evidence, Go
Grains recommends a daily target intake for whole grains of 48 g
(equivalent to ≈3 slices of whole grain bread).
[Received July 15, 2009. Accepted January 7, 2010.]
Bread, breakfast cereal, crisp-bread, and snack manufacturers
are adopting the Daily Target Intake concept by including a
statement of whole grain content on packaging, in advertising,
and in printed promotional materials. The statement typically
states “One serving (define ‘serving size’) of XXX (product name)
provides X% of the suggested 48 g daily target for whole grains*.
(*As recommended by Go Grains Health & Nutrition Ltd).”
Go Grains recommends that foods making a whole grain state-
ment should contain 10% or more whole grain content or contain
4.8 g or more whole grains per serving.
Conclusions
Grain-based foods have long been recognized as an important
part of a healthy diet but there is a gap between recommendations
and practice when it comes to consumer choice. The “4+ Serves a
Day” program and the 48 g “Daily Target Intake” for whole grains
are examples of initiatives that communicate healthy eating mes-
sages to target audiences using media campaigns, school educa-
tion programs, consumer education materials, and packaging com-
munications.
With the association between consumption of whole grains and
significant health benefits well established, there is little doubt
that whole grains are the way of the future for the grain foods
industry. Consumer research surveys show that Australian con-
sumers are becoming increasingly interested in whole grains and
their associated health benefits. This is reflected in changing
bread consumption patterns.
By bringing together companies and organizations across the
grains value chain, Go Grains is helping the Australian grains
industry to capture this opportunity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Health Focus International for use of data from “The 2008 Health Fo-
cus Australia Report”.
LITERATURE CITED
FSANZ. 2009. Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Standard 2.1.1.
Cereals and Cereal Products. http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/ thecode/
NHMRC. 2003. Food for Health. Dietary Guidelines for Australian
Adults. Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra.
Vol. 87, No. 2, 2010 161