General Mills Reduces Sugar

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Searcy (LP) General Mills, the company behind Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, and many of your favorite cereals has been making changes to our favorite breakfast treats without us even knowing. Since 2007,  General Mills has been reducing the sugar content at a slow rate so consumers would not taste a difference and continue to enjoy the products.

The reasoning behind the changes to the company’s classic recipes was a plummet in sales thanks to the new generation of health conscious consumers. Most people were turning to granola bars and yogurt to get them through the mornings without adding all the sugar to their diets. Shaun Formel, a local health nut, stopped buying cereal for his family years ago when he first turned his life around and starting taking care of his body. He said “I would always keep cereal in the house,then one day I was reading the nutrition facts and was very surprised.”  After that, Shaun starting preparing a homemade meal every morning so he would know exactly what he was feeding his family.

Taking out the sugar of the recipes was not as easy as it may sound. The sugar is not only used to sweeten the cereal but it is very important to the products crispiness and to stave off sogginess.  Yet, in 2007, the changes begun throughout the company. General Mills started by lowering the sugar in the more child-targeted products by 16 percent. In 2009, the company reduced sugar in products that already had single digit gram of sugar per serving. Today all General Mills products have 10 grams of sugar per serving or less. Although the slow sugar decrease did impair consumers from noticing the recipe changes that is not the only trick the company used, they also moved some of the sugar to the outside so the cereal would still be sweet.

lucky charms
Lucky Charms a General Mills product

The company’s main consumers are children. Kids are picky eaters and most definitely know what they like. General Mills slow attack method seemed to work. London King, a fourth grader eats cereal every morning and seems to not have detected a difference. “I eat Lucky Charms every morning and I think they are still sweet as can be.” Profits are up again for the household brand and  parents are pleased with the changes in their child’s favorite breakfast.

 

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