General Mills cereals go totally whole grain
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Cereal is about to get a lot healthier. On Thursday, General Mills, the nation's No. 2 cereal maker, will announce plans to convert all its cereals — including Trix, Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms — into whole grain products.
One nutrition expert ranks the change as one of the most significant food industry actions in decades.
"(It) could signal the most comprehensive improvement in the nation's food supply since the government began mandatory fortification of grains in the 1940s," says David Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Those rules helped eradicate many dietary diseases.
Nutritionists say whole grain flours are far healthier than refined corn meal or wheat flour. "If whole grain becomes a marketing magnet, it could lead the way to a healthier nation," says Dr. Neal Barnard, author of Breaking the Food Seduction. "The laxative industry could go into liquidation."
He added, however, that he believes the cereals still have some problems, including coloring and preservatives.
General Mills' action comes as makers of many kid-targeted products from cereal to soft drinks are racing to nutritionally improve their products. Improvements that began roughly two years ago in the fast-food world are fast filtering down to packaged foods.
This summer, General Mills and Kellogg began selling versions of their kid-targeted cereals with less sugar.
Cold cereal sales industrywide are down about 2.6% this year. All the cereal makers are trying to regain respect at the breakfast table.
About 40% of the General Mills "Big G" line will switch to whole grain over the next three months, says John Haugen, vice president of marketing. The other 60% — including Cheerios, Wheaties and Total — already are whole grain.
The switch will increase by 1.5 billion a year the number of whole grain servings eaten by Americans — without adding calories, says Susan Crockett, a nutrition researcher at General Mills.
One thing not changed is flavor, Haugen says. "Taste is a critical thing for us."
Pressure to improve cereal nutrition has been intense from consumers, nutritionists and health advocacy groups. But as consumers demand more convenience, General Mills also will need to use this technology in on-the-go items like cereal bars, says Sam Craig, marketing professor at New York University.
The whole-grain effort by General Mills is expected to nudge industry leader Kellogg to follow. Its executives declined comment on Wednesday.
General Mills executives won't discuss the technology behind the changes. But industry executives believe it is similar to one used by ConAgra in a flour it introduced last month, Ultragrain. The flour is made by a special milling process that uses the whole grains but pulverizes them into tiny, uniform sizes.
Chef2Chef News Desk