If you've ever bought a box of Cheerios or fruit roll-ups, you've sampled the work of a little-known scientist at General Mills named Joseph D. Mullen.
For 32 years, Mullen toiled in the company's secretive James Ford Bell research center in Golden Valley, where he tested new products and helped dream up others. He also helped the food giant find new ways to improve and promote the nutritional value of its products by conducting research on test subjects that sometimes included his own children.
"Long before fiber was important to the consuming public, Joe was touting the nutritional value of fiber," said Jon Blake, a former General Mills vice president who worked alongside Mullen for years. "It made a huge difference in General Mills' cereal sales. He was the whole-grain guru."
Mullen died on May 21. He was 87.
Mullen was born in Green Isle, Minn., and attended Glencoe High School. He was drawn to science as a child, said his wife of 65 years, Yvonne Mullen. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from then-College of St. Thomas in 1956 and later obtained a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota.
He was on the verge taking a job with Procter & Gamble when General Mills offered him one as a chemist at its research lab. He spent years in the company's Big G group, focused on breakfast cereal, rising to the position of senior principal scientist.
"Dad would come home from work often with something he was testing," said Colleen Dillon, the youngest of Mullen's four children. "We were part of his research."
One of her favorite experiences was testing the cereals that became Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry, the so-called "Monster" cereals that debuted in 1971. She said the four Mullen kids were monitored closely to see if their poop turned funny colors from the dyes in the cereal. "We would give feedback on whether we liked it, but he also wanted to see how it affected the digestive system," Dillon said.
