Then, The Nutrition and Labeling and Education Act of 1990 passed, ensuring that all products acquired the now-familiar list of “Nutrition Facts”; it became a lot easier to see just what your cereal had to offer. According to NPR, cereal consumption peaked in 1996 and has been on a steady decline ever since. Nicholas Fereday, a food investment analyst, told The New York Times that it’s been “a death by a thousand cuts,” affected by everything from declining birth rates (fewer children, cereal’s biggest consumers) to changing tastes to increased gluten intolerance. About 18% of American’s don’t even eat breakfast, up from 6% in 1977, and for those that do, they’re increasingly turning to the wider variety of options available, from oatmeal to eggs to granola bars to fast food. Harry Balzer, a food researcher, told NPR, “We keep looking for what’s the most convenient way to take care of that 12 minutes that we have to eat in the morning time…What’s the easiest way to do that? And a bowl of cereal—you got to dirty a bowl. You got to dirty a spoon. You got to clean that stuff.”
