| Hold the Sugar |
| Monday, 17 January 2011 19:03 | |||
 St. Louis, Missouri, January 2011— Post Foods, LLC recently announced it is cutting back on the amount of sugar in Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, two of its cereals. This move follows similar decisions by Kellogg and General Mills, who have reduced the sugar content in their products. Sugar in the two Post brands will be reduced from 11 to 9 grams, making good on a pledge made a year ago.
Post Foods has been in business since the late 19th century, when they were founded by C. W. Post and first known as Postum – and later Post Cereals. The first cereal produced by this company was Grape-Nuts, developed in 1897 and still going strong. After acquiring brands such as Jell-O in 1925 and Maxwell House Coffee in 1928, Post changed its corporate name to General Foods Corporation. They were bought by Philip Morris Companies in the mid-1980’s. In 1989, Philip Morris merged General Foods with Kraft Foods, which it had taken over to form the Kraft General Foods division. In 1995, Kraft General Foods was reorganized and renamed Kraft Foods. In 2007, Kraft announced that it would spin off Post Cereals and merge it with Ralcorp Holdings, which was at one time part of the Ralston-Purina group. The official name of the new company became Post Foods, LLC. Even though the move to reduce sugar content is looked upon as a positive step, there is doubt that children will be drawn to brands lower in sugar content. Tied to this issue is the epidemic of childhood obesity. Post Foods is working as part of the Children’s Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), a program launched to help tackle the issue of childhood obesity by changing the mix of advertising messages directed to children under 12 to include healthier choices. SOURCE: Several
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