Kellogg's Kashi brand has just introduced two new USDA Certified organic cereals, touting that it's using real organic fruit and whole grains in the wake of its Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) flap earlier this year. "We've always believed that nature makes the best-tasting ingredients, like the hearty whole grains and luscious organic fruit you can see and taste in our Berry Fruitful and Blackberry Hills cereals," states Keegan Sheridan, natural food and lifestyle expert at Kashi, in a press release.

Each serving of Berry Fruitful provides 6g of fiber and 46g of whole grains, nearly 100% of the recommended daily value, while Blackberry Hills offers 3g of fiber and 16g of whole grains per serving – and like all Kashi foods, both are free of preservatives, artificial flavors, colors and high fructose corn syrup. Equally important, both cereals carry the official Non-GMO Project Verified seal. But that still won't convince its GMO foes to re-embrace the brand.

Kashi doesn't broadcast the fact that it's owned by Kellogg, nor that it has used GMOs, because it's trying to be perceived as an independent brand to win a bigger share of the natural and organic food category, which grew 9.5% in 2011 to $31.5 billion in US sales. The brand's still recovering from being engulfed in a social media firestorm back in April, when a New England store boycotted it after discovering "that 100% of the soy used in Kashi products is genetically modified, and that when the USDA tested the grains used there were found to be pesticides that are known carcinogens and hormone disruptors."

Kashi's Keegan Sheridan defended the company's GMO usage with a YouTube video, but it's still getting flack from consumers opposed to GMOs on its Facebook page, as you can see at top.Continue reading...

Supermarket Sweep was a TV game show that started in the Sixties in which contestants jammed as many high-value products into their shopping carts as possible in just a minute or two. For CPG brands, the contemporary version of supermarket sweep isn't so kind. It's one reason there are so many lawsuits against companies over "misleading" advertising about the nutritional value of their foods these days: plaintiffs' lawyers.

A common factor behind new and recent suits against brands including Nutella, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft and Quaker Oats is that nutrition advocacy groups such as Center for Science in the Public Interest conduct "supermarket sweeps" (as CSPI has urged the FDA).

The goal is to find ordinary American consumers in the grocery aisle who are willing to complain — or join a lawsuit — about language on their labels that might be less than completely forthcoming about how healthy the product is. And they turn over their leads to their litigious partners.Continue reading...

Whole Foods Market this week rolled out a 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating program that grades pork, beef and chicken products according to how farm animals are bred and reared.

The animal-welfare rating system, developed by Global Animal Partnership, aims to help shoppers learn more about the origin of meat and poultry products and make more informed choices.Continue reading...

When Sun Chips launched its compostable, eco-friendly bag, the innovation created more of a stir than anticipated—and not the kind Frito-Lay had hoped for. Critics, from disgruntled consumers to media opinionators, joined forces to rally against the bag, forcing the company into what appeared to be a quick retreat. Sun Chips promised to desist their sustainable noisemaking and work toward a quieter option, for later release.Continue reading...

It's a marketing strategy that's never really gone out of style: Nationalism.

From Harley-Davidson to Laotian beer, "Made in (Your Locale Here)" has always appealed to politically-engaged consumers. That is especially true today.

In the post-Cold War, battles were fought by whipping out one's nuclear arsenal and measuring it. Today, size still matters, but it's all about the size of GDP. Nations don't mean to annihilate a competitor's front line, they mean to annihilate its bottom line. So, it comes as no surprise that a new Harris Poll finds that USA! USA! USA! is as much propaganda as pocketbook.Continue reading...

POM Wonderful wasn't the only edible brand that got caught in the crosshairs of the health claims wars today.

Ben & Jerry's is removing the phrase "All Natural" from its packaging as a result of a request from a health advocacy group.

The Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest announced that the Vermont-based ice cream-maker, which is owned by Unilever, has agreed to remove the words “All Natural” from all its ice creams and frozen yogurts "that contain alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, or other ingredients that aren’t natural."

The move "amicably" resolves a dispute arising from a letter that the Center for Science in the Public Interest sent last month to Unilever. The letter said that at least 48 Ben & Jerry's products were "improperly labeled."

Ben & Jerry's responded to an inquiry from AP it won't change any recipes, but will remove the disputed phrase gradually from all packaging.Continue reading...

Finally, a Kotex/Tampon ad that makes fun of Kotex/Tampon ads.

Ad agencies are finally realizing that young women want truth and humor when it comes to monthly menses, and – accordingly – commercials that reflect a sense of humor and irreverence. One such campaign starring 27-year-old Kelly Diaz appeared on Gossip Girl last week, and featured the young woman-not-an-actor introducing a new brand: UbyKotex.

Diaz, a former ad agency intern, helped create the concept and persuade the brand's parent company the moment had come to be truthful and clever about advertising tampons.

"We just felt like, 'Well, we're gonna try and be truthful and transparent. With this generation, we know humor is big and so we thought, sometimes actually laughing at yourself is a good place to start," said Aida Flick, Kotex brand manager.Continue reading...

Mars already dominates the chocolate-confectionery business in the American market. Now, the Mt. Olive, NJ-based candy giant would like to dictate how US food and beverage companies label their packages.

The Food & Drug Administration is expected to propose guidelines soon that will require CPG companies to provide simple, meaningful nutritional information on the front of their packages – and not just the rear. Furthermore, they're expected to require all food and beverage brands to keep cockamamie, grandiose or confusing claims off of packaging.

At first in Europe and now in the US, Mars has been rolling out a simple nutritional scoring system on all of its products based on “Guideline Daily Amounts” (GDA) of calories and key nutrients.Continue reading...