Gluten out Several years ago, when Mr. Tidbit's alter ego, Al Sicherman, wrote about celiac disease (it was 2006; time flies while you're having fun), he was surprised to discover how many products that he assumed would contain no wheat or barley (particularly corn and rice cereals) were off limits to celiac sufferers anyway -- because they contained barley malt as a flavoring. Specialty-brand gluten-free cereals were considerably more expensive.
In 2008 General Mills substituted molasses for the barley malt in Rice Chex, making that product gluten-free (noted with a badge on the front of the box).
Mr. Tidbit doesn't know when the following development happened -- he didn't detect any fanfare from General Mills -- but he just noticed that Corn Chex, Cinnamon Chex, Honey Nut Chex and Chocolate Chex, all of which formerly contained barley malt, now carry gluten-free badges, as well.
The same move has not happened at Kellogg's. Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies both contain malt flavoring, and Corn Pops contains wheat starch.
Fiber in On the other hand, several Kellogg cereals -- Froot Loops, Apple Jacks and Corn Pops -- now contain 3 grams of fiber per serving. All three had 1 gram of fiber per serving before the modification. The Corn Pops got the extra fiber through the addition of soluble corn fiber; the Froot Loops and Apple Jacks got both soluble corn fiber and oat fiber, and the regular corn and oat flours in both cereals were changed to whole-grain versions.
On the other other hand, none of the gluten-free Chex cereals has more than a gram of fiber -- and Rice Chex has none. (The Chex cereals that do contain gluten have more fiber: Wheat Chex has 5 grams of fiber, and Multi-Bran Chex has 6 grams of fiber per serving.)
On that same other hand, all three of the fiber-added Kellogg cereals have lots less sodium than any of the Chex cereals.
Mr. Tidbit hopes that makes things perfectly clear.
