From my recent tirades against Go-gurt and Vitaminwater, you probably assume I’m an organic-only, vegan, health food nut. Au contraire. I actually love candy, ice cream, and other sweet treats. But I still can’t stand the idea of a Pop-Tarts Store.

Yes, those packaged breakfast pastries now have a flagship store of their own right in the center of New York’s Time Square.

As The New York Times points out, the idea behind what its promoters are calling “Pop-Tarts World” is to bolster the brand. After all, “as a breakfast food, these pastries have neither the nutritional cachet of cereal nor the tuck-in-a-pocket ease of a breakfast bar. As a snack, they’re not quite sweet like a cookie, nor savory like a cracker.”

In other words, Pop-Tarts needs an image overhaul to appeal to today’s kids. Continue reading »

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Who can you trust these days? First, Children’s Liquid Tylenol and other kids’ drugs were recalled. Then a slew of baby cribs were recalled and last month, Kellogg’s Corn Pops, Honey Smacks, Froot Loops, and Apple Jacks were recalled. At the time, Kellogg’s said the recall was due to “uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell coming from the liner in the package,” an issue that could cause temporary nausea and diarrhea.

But now The New York Times reports that “the real culprit behind the recall is a class of chemicals now making news in the Gulf of Mexico: hydrocarbons, a byproduct of oil.”

In particular, hydrocarbon methylnaphthalene was behind the recall of around 28 million cereal boxes. Continue reading »

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You can’t always believe what you read — especially if you’re reading the back of a cereal box.

In other words, Rice Krispies won’t boost your immunity and Frosted Mini-Wheats won’t make your kid more attentive (if only!).

The Kellogg Company has agreed to new advertising restrictions which will prohibit them from making such dubious claims, the Federal Trade Commission announced today.

Last year, the FTC investigated and then took action against the Kellogg Company for claiming that its Frosted Mini- Wheats cereal was “clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20% ” when that wasn’t the case.

The FTC has expanded its settlement order against Kellogg to include the latest health claim that Rice Krispies boosts children’s  immunity. Continue reading »

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Now this! This is what I was talking about. The missing piece in the First Lady’s — and, really, anyone’s — attempts to do something about children’s health and obesity in the U.S.

Michelle Obama, speaking at a meeting of the Grocery Manufacturers Association yesterday, that food makers need a complete and total overhaul of their business.

Here’s what she said: Continue reading »

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Forget the swine flu, America, we have a real crisis on our hands:  A shortage of Eggo Waffles.  Kellogg’s announced this week that due to production problems, waffle production in the United States won’t return to normal until mid-2010.

Quit laughing, this is serious.  Blogger and stay-at-home mom Joey Resciniti told the Associated Press that she was lucky enough to find one box left at her local Walmart, and is rationing them out to her four-year-old daughter one half waffle at a time.  “I told my husband that maybe I need to put them on eBay,” says Resciniti.  Thinks she’s kidding?  Think again.

Continue reading »

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The cereal aisle at the grocery store can be a bit overwhelming.  With so many to different cereals to choose from, how is parent to know which one offers the best nutrition for their child?  Cereal makers, assuming parents won’t turn the box over and read the fine print,  have begun putting some nutrition information in large print on the front of the box.  But as the Food and Drug Administration points out, this information can be misleading. Continue reading »

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