GoodGuide's Cold Cereal Ratings: Which Brands Are Best and Worst?

Nature's Path makes the top cold cereal and a collection from cereal giant Post are at the bottom of the pack of ratings by GoodGuide.

The economy may be forcing consumers to watch every penny, but concerns for the environment, personal health and social responsibility are increasingly factoring into purchasing decisions.To help you make those choices, Consumer Ally has teamed up with GoodGuide, whose experts have rated more than 65,000 consumer goods, including food, toys, personal care and household products.

GoodGuide's ratings are based on three scores: Health, environment and society. The first score measures a product's potential health impact on consumers. The second is based on the environmental impact of the product and the company's overall policies and practices. The third evaluates social impact, which can include treatment of workers, workplace diversity, community involvement and corporate ethics.

Last time around, we looked at GoodGuide's paper towel ratings. This time, we'll see what they have to say about cold cereal.

GoodGuide experts rated 519 cold cereals, and below are their five best- and worst-rated. In order to avoid repetition (for example, the first 41 best cold cereals are all made by Nature's Path, while the top worst 5 are all made by Post), we've skipped ahead to the next best or worst brand.

The Best Cold Cereals

• Nature's Path Organic Kamut Puffs Cereal (9.0)
• Annie's Homegrown Bunny Love Cereal (7.6)
• Malt O Meal Honey and Oat Blenders (7.4)
• Barbara's Bakery Shredded Wheat Cereal (7.3)
• Healthy Times Mixed Grain Cereal, Organic (7.3)

The Worst Cold Cereals

• Trader Joe's Banana Nut Clusters (4.5)
• Erewhon Rice Twice (4.5)
• Kellogg's Honey Smacks Cereal (4.5)
• Whole Earth Organic Cocoa Crunch Cereal (4.4)
• Post Selects Maple Pecan Crunch (4.3)

You can view all the top-rated cold cereals (in descending order) here, and all the poorly rated cereals (in ascending order) here.