General Mills Reduces Sugar in Cereal

Posted on December 17, 2009 in Consumer Goods, Health & Medicine, Parenting

If you like your Lucky Charms on the sweet side, you may have to resort to an extra spoonful of sugar. General Mills announced that it plans to reduce the amount of sugar in cereals marketed to children.

The cereal giant said it will cut the sugar in 10 of its cereals—which also include Trix and Cocoa Puffs—to single-digit grams of sugar per serving. Excessive sugar has come under scrutiny after being linked to health issues. General Mills rolled out an initiative two years ago to gradually reduce sugar to 12 grams or less. Some cereals have already had the amount of sugar cut by as much as 20%.

After increasing the amount of whole grains in its cereals in 2005, General Mills cereal sales went up. “This is a significant development across some of our biggest and long-term brands,” said Jeff Harmening, president of the company’s Big G cereal division.