Mr. Tidbit has monitored the progress of General Mills' Fiber One brand up and down the supermarket aisles -- from cereal to brownies, chewy bars, muffins, muffin mixes, bread, bagels, hot dog and hamburger buns and cottage cheese. And now he must tell you that the same thing appears to be happening to Kellogg's Fiber Plus brand.
In addition to the three flavors of Fiber Plus Antioxidants cereal and four varieties of Fiber Plus Antioxidants chewy bars, Kellogg's now produces two kinds of Eggo Fiber Plus frozen waffles: Fiber Plus Antioxidants chocolate chip waffles and, in a departure for the brand, Fiber Plus [no, not antioxidants but] Calcium buttermilk waffles. A serving (two waffles) of either version provides 9 grams of fiber -- 35 percent of the daily value.
The nutrition profiles for both waffles are similar, but in addition to 20 percent or more of the daily value for eight other vitamins and minerals, a serving of the plus-calcium waffles has 35 percent of the daily value for calcium (the plus-antioxidants waffles have 25 percent) and a serving of the plus-antioxidants waffles has 35 percent of the daily value for Vitamin E (the plus-calcium bar waffles have none).
And although they typically sell for the same price as other Eggo waffles (and all the waffles weigh 1.2 ounces each), the box of regular Eggos contains 10 waffles, and the box of Fiber Plus waffles contains only eight. So each Fiber Plus waffle costs 25 percent more.
Orange soup? Mr. Tidbit believes it's been several months since his most recent attempt to foreswear talking about products whose only new aspect is a new flavor, so he's comfortable mentioning a new flavor of Campbell's condensed soup: Harvest Orange Tomato. He thought the name meant it was a soup with the flavors of orange and tomato. Not so. And to save some poor soul from making the same mistake, he offers this description from the label: "Made from our specially cultivated orange tomatoes." That's orange, the color.
AL SICHERMAN
