General Mills Boosts Vitamin D Content in Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cheerios

July 20, 2023

Other Big G cereals will be formulated to deliver twice as much of the nutrient and rolled out later this summer.

General Mills has announced that it has boosted the content of Vitamin D in several of its Big G cereals to deliver 20 percent of the daily value, with the majority of the rest of the line to follow in the coming weeks. The move — which means the products deliver twice the previous percent daily value of the vitamin — aligns with the company’s campaign to upgrade the nutritional content of its cereals

Vitamin D was targeted as an essential building block for strong bones, but according to the company’s release announcing the upgrade, 96.1% of all Americans ages 2 years and older don’t consume enough of the nutrient. The change follows approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year to increase levels of Vitamin D fortification in ready-to-eat cereal. General Mills hopes to use throwback messaging to help consumers reach for RTE cereals to help them meet their nutrition goals.

The upgraded Vitamin D content can be found in two products for the time being: Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cheerios. General Mills stated in the announcement that other cereals, such as Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, Trix and Cookie Crisp, will hit shelves with the Vitamin D update throughout the summer.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.