Happy Thursday! Hope you’re having an awesome week. If you’ve been reading/following (someone help me out with the proper terminology!) my blog awhile, you may recall I’ve done a few collaborations with General Mills and even took a trip out to their headquarters in Minneapolis last month, where I talked some cereal shop with members of the team and several other bloggers (like Lisa—aka Snack Girl). The last day of the trip involved some top-secret super-awesome news I’m excited to finally be able to share with you guys.
In a press release Monday, the company announced, “General Mills Cereals has committed to removing artificial flavors and colors from artificial sources from the rest of its cereals in response to consumers’ changing preferences.”
Though the company has been gradually decreasing sugar content over the past few years, these ingredients were at the top of the list of what customers wanted to see removed from ingredients lists.
Trix and Reese’s Puffs will be among the first cereals to change. How? The General Mills stated that “Trix will now use ingredients like fruit and vegetable juices and spice extracts such as turmeric and annatto to achieve the fun red, yellow, orange and purple colors. Reese’s Puffs will continue to use peanut butter and cocoa and incorporate natural vanilla flavor to achieve the same great taste that adults and children have always enjoyed.”
This first wave of products is expected to hit shelves this winter. The company plans to have “more than 90 percent of the portfolio free of artificial flavors and colors from artificial sources by the end of 2016” and to have all General Mills Cereals free from artificial flavors and colors from artificial sources by 2017.
Though this doesn’t automatically make these products Health Food (as a dietitian, I see sugary cereals as a once-in-a-while type of food), I’m still excited to see General Mills joining the growing number of companies making changes to lessen to the amount of crap consumers cram into their mouths on a daily basis.
What was your favorite cereal growing up?
This post has been part of another Running with Spoons Thinking Out Loud link party, where randomness is the name of the game. Thanks to Amanda for hosting.
