General Mills Update

So I've heard some internet rumblings over the last few days about some changes with General Mills and their cereal products. The first rumor was that several ingredients had been changed in the following products - Strawberry Chex, Chocolate Lucky Charms and Kix to make them Gluten Free.

Strawberry Chex used to be made with Barley Malt flavoring and has been changed to now include Molasses instead. This is a similar change to regular Rice Chex made last year to make that cereal Gluten Free.

Chocolate Lucky Charms now includes Corn as it's main ingredient instead of Oats like regular Lucky Charms. Same with Honey Kix cereal. (NOTE - Regular Kix and Lucky Charms cereal still has Oats as it's main ingredient).

So what does all of this mean for people following the Gluten Free Diet? Let's go with a big fat nothing. I called General Mills this morning and was told that there was indeed an ingredient change for Strawberry Chex, Chocolate Lucky Charms and Honey Kix. I thought that was pretty cool but went on to inquire about where the products are made and if they were made in a similar fashion (i.e. dedicated line) to Rice Chex. The company will not apparently release that information or guarantee they are made on a dedicated line like Rice Chex. They also said they had no plans to actually label any of the above as Gluten Free for this very reason. They encourage consumers to always read the ingredients label the box for the best information. Too bad the box doesn't say anything about where the product is made.

FYI - There are still boxes of these cereals out there which have the old ingredients for those of you willing to eat them even though they are not made on a dedicated production line.

The other rumor I heard was that General Mills plans on removing the Gluten Free labeling from their Rice Chex product and will instead advise consumers to read the product label for the GF status of the cereal. That's great isn't it!?

Feel free to give General Mills a call at 1-800-248-7310.