Tidbits: Crystal Farms, Jolly Rancher gelatin

The joint is jumping over at Crystal Farms, whose parent company, Michael Foods, is being acquired by Post Holdings (the parent of the cereal company). The acquisition probably is unrelated to the debuts of three Crystal Farms products — French toast batter, scrambled eggs and cheese Nibblers — but Mr. Tidbit bought all three products, which certainly improved Michael Foods' bottom line, so maybe …

In any case, unlike Crystal Farms' Better'n Eggs and All Whites (both based on egg whites and so containing no fat or cholesterol and 70 calories per ½ cup), the new scrambled egg product and the French toast batter are made with whole eggs. The scrambled eggs also contain buttermilk and extra egg whites. Per ½ cup they contain 150 calories, 9 grams of fat and 340 milligrams of cholesterol. Besides whole eggs, the French toast batter includes whole milk and sugar; ½ cup contains 160 calories, 7 grams of fat and 260 milligrams of cholesterol.

The cheese Nibblers are little (1.5-ounce) one-serving bags of tiny cubes of seasoned cheeses (Smoky BBQ Cheddar, habanero pepper Jack, chipotle Cheddar, and sour cream & onion Monterey Jack). The bag front heralds the amount of protein inside — depending on variety, 9 or 10 grams. There's also 11 to 13 grams of fat.

Last fall Mr. Tidbit noted the arrival of three varieties of Hershey instant pudding mix (chocolate, white chocolate and Special Dark), made not by Hershey but by the Jel Sert company under license. At the time, Mr. Tidbit noted that Jel Sert also produces the My-T-Fine and Royal brands of pudding mixes and Royal gelatin mix. He didn't expect to be revisiting Jel Sert so soon, but that firm has two new lines of dessert mixes.

There are four flavors of Jolly Rancher brand gelatin mix, and five flavors of Royal brand Greek yogurt instant pudding mix.

(Greek yogurt instant pudding mix is, apparently, instant pudding mix in which the third ingredient is dehydrated Greek yogurt. Mr. Tidbit is not sure how dehydrated Greek yogurt is different from just-plain dehydrated yogurt, but it sure sounds better, doesn't it?)