It's all about real fruit in the next addition to the Cheerios family.
Next month, General Mills (GIS) will launch "Very Berry" Cheerios, a cereal that will use powders from strawberries, cranberries, blueberries and raspberries for its flavor. It will be absent artificial colors and flavors, and also gluten-free.
According to the box, which TheStreet looked over ahead of the launch, the cereal's color is derived from fruit juice coloring. In a taste test, one could easily tell this was a cereal free of lab-concocted colors and flavors. The Cheerios lacked the bright colors and somewhat harsh after-taste inherent to many artificially fruit-flavored cereals.
Don't be too hard on yourself if you can't remember whether Cheerios ever did berry-flavored cereal before.
The company introduced three different versions of "Berry Burst" Cheerios back in 2003: strawberry, triple berry and banana. All three were eventually phased out. Last spring, the company introduced gluten-free strawberry Cheerios for a limited time. It performed "very well," said a company spokeswoman.
Ingredients in General Mills' new "Very Berry" Cheerios
The latest Cheerios flavor follows more than a year of General Mils overhauling its most beloved cereal brands to make them more appealing to increasingly health-aware shoppers. Last year, five iterations of Cheerios -- Apple Cinnamon, Multigrain, Frosted, Honey Nut and original -- went gluten-free. In January, Trix hit the markets minus artificial colors and flavors. The company said more than 90% of its cereals can now claim they are free of artificial flavors and colors.
