General Mills is removing artificial colors and flavors from all their cereals by the end of 2017, the major cereal company announced in a statement.
This move comes after a wave of big food companies like Taco Bell, Panera Bread, and Nestlé also decided to remove artificial ingredients.
“People eat with their eyes,” said Jim Murphy, president of General Mills’ cereal division in a video released by the company. “The trick is, How can we maintain an appealing look, just not using the artificial colors? People don’t want colors with numbers in their food anymore.”
Out of all General Mills cereals, 60 percent are already free of artificial ingredients. The company aims to change the remaining 40 percent by 2017, using fruit and vegetable juices and spice extracts to reproduce the colors and flavors that cereals Trix and Lucky Charms are famous for.
In Trix cereal, food dyes like Red 40 and Yellow 6 will be replaced by fruit and vegetable juices, and turmeric and annatto extracts.
The developers at General Mills have struggled to find natural colors for the blue and green pieces in Trix, so they are removing those colors from the cereal altogether.
Some components like the marshmallows in Lucky Charms may take longer to make natural, but General Mills hopes to be 90 percent free of artificial ingredients by the end of 2016, and 100 percent free by the end of 2017.
Although these changes do not make these cereals healthy by any means, they are important steps in the right direction for the food industry.
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Taco Bell and Pizza Hut have decided to ban artificial ingredients.
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Costco is working to ban antibiotics from meat.
Wendy’s removes soda from kid’s meals.
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REFERENCES:
1. “GENERAL MILLS CEREALS REMOVING ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS AND COLORS FROM ARTIFICIAL SOURCES.” Multivu. General Mills, 22 June 2015. Web. 27 June 2015.
2. “Favorite Kids’ Cereals to Drop Artificial Colors and Flavors.” TakePart. TakePart, 22 June 2015. Web. 27 June 2015.
3. “A Big Commitment for Our Cereals.” YouTube. General Mills, n.d. Web. 27 June 2015.
