Soy Takes the Cake

Prepared Foods, April, 2000 by Jennifer Timpe

Cereals added a healthy crunch to the category, but baking ingredients made it easier than ever to indulge.

Grain-based food introductions in 1999 reflected many of the sometimes contradictory trends driving the entire food industry. Every indulgent, calorie-laden baked good seemed to have an organic, natural and healthful alternative.

The Claims Game

Hot and cold breakfast cereals were the only subcategories with higher introduction numbers in 1999. The reason is pretty simple: Processors were working with a brand new script based on the cardiovascular health benefits of soy, oats and whole grains. By year's end, the Food & Drug Administration had approved the use of product labeling touting those benefits.

A few of the first products to carry the approved claims included a Brown Sugar & Oat Total cereal extension from General Mills, Minneapolis; Harvest Mornings instant hot cereal from Nabisco Brands, Parsippany, N.J.; Health Valley Cereals in Raspberry Rhapsody and Cranberry Crunch varieties from Hain Food Group, Uniondale, N.Y.; and a wide range of breakfast cereals from several smaller firms.

Not surprisingly, Quaker Oats, Chicago, was the leader in oat-containing cereals. Although the company added several flavor additions to its hot cereal line--including French Vanilla and Baked Apple--its most unique product was Oatmeal Express, the company's first hot cereal in a cup. The product is packaged in plastic cups rather than the paperboard cups used by others on the market. Consumers simply add hot water.

Soy-containing cereals in 1999 appeared mainly from companies catering to natural foods stores. One that debuted last fall also foreshadowed another trend: GMO-free foods. New Paradigm cereals from New Paradigm Foods, Wheaton, Ill., contain soy that is free of genetically modified organisms. This cereal, like so many in 1999, also was made from organic grains. GMO-free foods are already popular in Europe, and we expect these products to proliferate here in 2000 as well.

Another line came from American Health & Nutrition, Ann Arbor, Mich. Its Organic Garden Soy-N-Energy cereals are also high in protein, folic acid, calcium and fiber while being low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Organic breakfast cereal made its way onto mainstream store shelves with breakthrough product Sunrise cereal from General Mills, Minneapolis. The cereal marks the first time a mainstream firm has offered organic foods in wide distribution. It won't be the last time, however, as mainstream companies are gobbling up smaller natural foods innovators at an alarming rate. General Mills recently purchased Small Planet Foods; Kellogg now owns Worthington Foods; and Quaker Oats just partnered with Novartis to form Altus Foods.

Other products from the organic front included cookies, breads and crackers. Country Choice Naturals, Eden Prairie, Minn., introduced several new organic cookies, and Wheatless & Wonderful, Greenvale, N.Y., introduced W&W Spelt Toddler Yummies cookies for children. Not all the organic products were sold just in health food stores. Many, like Duchy Originals Organic Biscuits from Walkers Shortbread, Hauppauge, N.Y., appeared in gourmet stores as well.

Grain-based foods also seem to have been beset by "energy" products. Energy muffins, for example, from Bow Tie Bakers, Cumberland, R.I., come in standard muffin flavors--Almond and Raisin, Peanut Butter/Chocolate Chip, and Cherry Crunch--but all are fortified with gingko biloba, lecithin, guarana, folic acid and ginseng.

Canadian company Prairie Sun Grains, Calgary, Alberta, introduced Herbal Supplement Hot Cereals. Two of its four varieties, Mind/Energy and Cardio, are fortified with herbs like gingko, ginseng and English hawthorn. Totalfit! cookies from Mrs. Denson's Cookie, Ukiah, Calif., are high in protein, zinc and antioxidants.

Like other products keyed to specific diets, Sugar Busters breads from Boudreaux's Foods, New Orleans, are high in fiber and low in sugar, just as the Sugar Busters diet recommends. The breads (whole wheat, classic French formulations) join entrees and soups in this line.

We're Not All Angels

Kraft Foods, Glenview, Ill., led the pack of indulgent products last year with the debut of Philadelphia Snack Bars. Think of these bars as single-serve blocks of cheesecake. They have fruit fillings and are sold individually wrapped in 6-packs. Although they resemble Sara Lee's frozen cheesecake bites of 1998, the cakes are larger and are designed for both snacking and as a single-serve dessert.

Tasty Baking, Philadelphia, followed Kraft's lead with its Tastykake Classic Baked Goods, family-sized versions of its classic sweet treats such as Butter Crumb Coffee Cake.

The baking ingredients subcategory offered some interesting new products in addition to the usual mixes, toppings and baking products we've seen year in and year out. General Mills added a Yellow Cake variety to its Stir 'N Bake line of baking mixes that include everything--even the pan. Aurora Foods, Columbus, Ohio, kicked the Log Cabin brand name up a notch with its tempting new Premium Pancake Mixes in flavors like Chunky Pecan and Cinnamon Vanilla.