Cereal lessons

What I talk about when I talk about why Big Food uses marketing mascots, the concept of "Girl Dinner," and fancy jello shots.

The cookie jar of my childhood always seemed full of Keebler Elves cookies, but never so full that I didn’t need to be judicious over how much to take after school. This past Tuesday, I worked my weekly food pantry shift and there they were again. Proust has his madeleine. I have my Keebler Elves.

I read over the ingredients that day, something I’d never done. In addition to what you might expect – wheat flour, salt, milk, molasses – the cookies were also made with hydrogenated palm kernel oil, vegetable oil (made from soybean, palm and palm kernel oil), artificial flavors (in addition to natural ones), Blue 1 and Red 3. 

Don’t even get me started on foods like this one formulated w/ four artificial colors!

There’s much concern from folks in the nutrition world about artificial colors, and not as much concern from the FDA, which leaves us in a murky spot. Red 3 is supposed to be phased out but it's not. Blue 1 is maybe ok, but maybe it’s not. I won’t go deep on color here, but seeing them on an ingredient list is a sign of a food you cannot make at home. And kids like bright colors. Magnificent hues are one lever food makers pull when crafting a snack we can’t resist.

Another way to lure us in are cartoon characters emblazoned on packaging. Cereal is maybe the best known for this slickness, but examples are everywhere.

There’s Mr. Peanut, who I’m kinda okay with. Colonel Sanders–totally bad. There’s Tony the Tiger (cute but bad). We’ve got Ronald McDonald (not cute and also bad). Cap’n Crunch (sorry, bad). There’s Chester the Cheetah (probably less well known but boo-hoo he’s bad too). And there’s the cute gang of Keebler Elves (bad bad bad).

One of the tenants of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is that it comes riddled in marketing. (I realize I might be stealing the joy of American food by continuing to write on this topic, but I can’t help myself!)

Definition reminder: Ultra-processed food is a category defined by the NOVA classification system, which is a helpful guide for organizing the foods we eat. Aggressive marketing goes hand in hand with the convenience and attractiveness of UPF, which is cheap and easy to find. Shiny boxes or bags with cartoon characters drive sales of UPF and contribute to excessive consumption. Food and beverage companies profit off of our inability to pass them up.

Except for California and Louisiana, there are almost no rules against marketing this kinda stuff in the US. But in Mexico there’s a policy requiring warning labels on unhealthy food. If a food is deemed unhealthy – including high in calories, sugar, salt, saturated fats or trans fats – it gets a big black octagon on the front of the package. Once a food gets that kind of labeling it must also remove the mascot from the box. (Eek.)

Boring cereal boxes without their iconic mascots. Image from XalapaNacional

Kellogg’s, the company responsible for Tony the Tiger (aka Tigre Toño) and other mascots, has already sued the Mexican government over this “outrageous” policy. (Quotes mine.) In the meantime, the company pumped out new cereals using allulose instead of sugar. To further complicate: despite allulose being used as an artificial sweetener, it isn’t categorized as a sweetener so it can bypass the warning policy.

The mascot is back!

In addition, according to this great piece in Stat News: “Companies like Coca-Cola and Kraft Heinz have begun designing their products so that their packages don’t have a true front or back, but rather two nearly identical labels — except only one side has the warning. [Are we surprised they’re sneaky? NO.] As a result, supermarket clerks often place the products with the warning facing inward.” (Or the cereal company hires people to go in and flip them around and pays them peanuts.)

Why do we care about what’s happening in Mexico? Because the US is finally considering a similar policy and the FDA is studying it now. How long will the regulatory agency do this “studying” (quotes mine) and how many companies will be lobbying hard and exerting pressure? For a long time and a lot.

What can the US learn from what’s going on in Mexico? A lot, says the Stat News article. 1.) There will be lawsuits, but that may make for a stronger policy in the end. 2.) A new US policy could lead to trouble in international trade. 3.) Every detail of the policy will be debated, and (we hope) it will lead to consumers asking more questions not less and expecting more from Big Food not less. 4.) Loopholes will be exploited (like with allulose) and the FDA needs to be ready to fight.

This is the FDA’s opportunity to be proactive instead of reactive and to rise to the occasion and protect the American public from junk food.

Other tidbits:

1. The latest food trend on TikTok is “Girl Dinner,” which essentially is a few easy items dished up for dinner that require no effort. There’s a lot wrong with labeling a meal by gender–kinda like women always order the salad–but I couldn’t help seeing myself in the mirror. I’ve made countless meals using hummus and carrots (always in the fridge) served up with an egg or a piece of smoked salmon and crackers and half an avocado. Now there are fast food spots getting in on the idea like Popeyes, which offers (online only) the ability to order a suite of sides without the chicken, which I’m guessing my vegan friends have been doing since the dawn of time? Maybe it just needs a rebrand?

   

   Appetizer or “girl dinner”? Photo by wmatbrown/Flickr.

2. Do you eat enough protein? Depends on who’s asking and what your goals are. Here’s a great read in The Atlantic on how our RDA (recommended daily amount) was set at .8 kg per pound of bodyweight and whether it should be re-jiggered. I like this quote from the story: “When people eat more than about 20 to 40 grams of protein in a single sitting, their protein-processing machinery can get overwhelmed; the body eliminates the nitrogen as waste, then treats the rest as it would a carbohydrate or fat.” The outcome is that excess nitrogen makes its way into our wastewater.

3. I don’t do fast food, but I do love this use of AI: At Checkers, a fast food chain with over 800 locations, you can drive up and order your lunch en español. Checkers is using Hi Auto to power the system. Just speak Spanish (or English) and the tech will respond in kind.

4. The latest drink trend is…jello shots? When you order a negroni at Marian’s in Manhattan’s West Village, it comes with a “negroni” jello shot on the side. (Yes please.)

Where you can find me?

1. For Fast Company, I wrote about Omeat, a lab-grown meat startup in Los Angeles of all places. The food-tech company is tackling the difficult task of growing meat without animals by continuing to use animals — a herd of regenerative cows — for some of their VIP growth factors, aka nutrients that signal cells to grow in the lab. 

2. I’ll be in Burlington, Vermont soon. Have any favorite spots?

3. Have you read my book? You can get it in hardcover, on Kindle and audio. Bonus points: It’s translated into Chinese and Korean.