MINNEAPOLIS – General Mills announced Monday it will phase out the use artificial flavors and colors in its breakfast cereals.
By 2017, General Mills will tweak all the different recipes that make up its cereals so that artificial flavors and colors are no longer used as ingredients. Already this year, Trix, Cocoa Puffs and Reese’s Puffs will be the first of its cereals to undergo the change.
The recipe changes are in response to customers, who have told General Mills “that artificial ingredients aren’t what you are looking for in your bowl.”
General Mills said Monday that the work has been underway for several months and they have “been researching flavors and colors for several years”. They said about 60% of their cereals already “are free of artificial flavors or colors from artificial sources and have been that way for several years.”
The changes to the cereals take time, General Mills explained, as their product developers “make sure they look and taste great.”
