USA: General Mills removes artificial flavours and colours from cereal range

General Mills has announced that it is to remove artificial flavours and colours from artificial sources from its cereals range in the USA.

In a website post, the company said it had “heard that artificial ingredients aren’t what you are looking for in your bowl”.

“The change affects roughly 40 percent of our cereals over the next two to three years. Currently, about 60 percent of our cereals already are free of artificial flavours or colours from artificial sources and have been that way for several years”, the company said. “We are aiming for 75 percent by January – including Reese’s Puffs and Trix – and 90 percent by the end of 2016”.

General Mills also noted that the development would take some time because each cereal requires different changes, and particular difficulties have been found in some cases to ensure that the product looks the same after removing the artificial colour.

“We’ve been working relentlessly to make sure these cereals still taste like what people are used to eating”, says Kate Gallager, research and development manager for Cereal.

Source: General Mills