Even after reading endless stories on the marketing of nutrition along your supermarket aisles, I nearly shat my Fruit Loops after reading this one. By the end of 2010, Kellogg will increase the amount of fiber found in all of their kids cereals to 3 grams. That is the minimum amount required to be able to label the product as a good source of fiber.
The move is expected to rock the packaged foods industry, which is under pressure from consumers and lawmakers to boost food quality. The industry has recently begun embracing fiber-fortified products at warp speed.
New products touting higher fiber are rolling out at a record clip in 2009, with 6.5% of new foods making such a claim through the month of May, reports Datamonitor, the research specialist. Marketers from Dannon to Kraft have introduced fiber-enriched products this year.
Fiber is the top-ranked item that consumers are asking Kellogg to add to kid cereals, says Jose Alberto Duenas, vice president of U.S. cereal marketing. The number of consumers who check fiber content on nutrition panels grew to 52% last year, vs. 42% in 2006, reports the International Food Information Council.
Apple Jacks and Fruit Loops will be the first kid-targeted cereals to get the fiber boost. It’s interesting that parents see fiber as such a key factor on a processed food package (as opposed to sugars, sodium and artificial ingredients). If it’s really fiber you’re after, try Kellogg’s All-Bran. After a particularly frustrating bout, I went from being fiber agnostic to speaking in tongues after about half a bowl.
Thanks to reader Jana for the link
