Tidbits: It's all what?

By AL SICHERMAN, Star Tribune

Last update: September 2, 2009 - 4:47 PM

It's all what?

Mr. Tidbit has spoken before about the use of brand names on a variety of products unlike the originals. Velveeta, for example, is not a particular cheese blend but a name that Kraft can and does use on any of its cheesy offerings (such as Velveeta Shells & Cheese). And Kellogg puts "Special K," the name of its nutritionally enhanced cereal, on many less-enhanced products, from cereal bars to waffles and crackers. Some contain hardly any vitamins at all.

But the one that really bugs Mr. Tidbit is Kellogg's high-fiber cereal, All-Bran. Mr. Tidbit grudgingly accepts that the name of the original cereal doesn't mean there's nothing in the box but wheat bran. It means that the entire cereal component (not the sweeteners, flavorings, etc.) is bran, the fiber-rich outer layer of the grain. But not only doesn't this apply to many of the other All-Bran products (fiber bars containing rice and oats, crackers with only whole-wheat flour and oats, etc.), it doesn't even apply to some of the newer All-Bran cereals. (All-Bran Strawberry Medley, for example, is mostly whole-grain wheat.)

So he wasn't surprised that Kellogg's new All-Bran fiber drink mix ($5.49 for 10 packets at one supermarket; stirred into water, each makes a drink with 10 grams of fiber) contains no bran at all, just fiber from polydextrose and fructo-oligosaccharides. But he did expect to find some bran in new All-Bran rolled fiber wafers ($4.99 for a box of six servings; 10 grams of fiber each). Nope. No bran here, either: Again the fiber comes from polydextrose and fructo-oligosaccharides. (Mr. Tidbit loves those fructo-oligosaccharides.) The entire grain component of this All-Bran product is wheat flour. It's not even whole-wheat flour.

Yow!

Speaking of stir-in packets, now you can buy Coffee-mate that way. A box of seven 0.1-ounce packets is 99 cents at one store, where a 15-ounce jar sells for $3.69. At the price of the packets, that jar would cost about $21!

AL SICHERMAN