Freedom
Independence! Yes, I’m glad we are no longer under colonial British rule. I enjoy a good fireworks show as much as the next guy, and grilled burgers and hot dogs are delicious. But America seems deeply broken, and I’m highly dubious of every group that claims it knows how to fix it.
Thank goodness this isn’t a political blog. Because I have nothing good to say on that front.
There is however, great news from the grocery aisles, and I feel the need to report on it. Mostly because one of the more popular posts on the FLB from the past year has been Post Screws Around with Grape Nuts. It detailed the sneaky formulation change that added soy and other ingredients into the classic formulation of whole grain wheat flour, malted barley flour, salt and dried yeast.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who fled the brand for the generic alternatives that continued to sell a version of the classically simple four-ingredient cereal. So, Post has done something drastic.
Not only did the manufacturer take soy out of a cereal that should never contained soy in the first place, they’ve adopted the Non-GMO Project Verified seal.
That last part is a little bit nuts because there is no GMO wheat, barley, salt or yeast. Although some keen observers have noticed that the added vitamins and minerals have changed. The hypothesis is that these supplements are synthesized from GMO sources, and thus can no longer be used in a Non-GMO Project Verified food.
Those who care about such things are now making the argument that the anti-GMO fervor has actually caused Grape-Nuts cereal to be less nutritious.
For the record, I call hogwash. The vitamins that are sprayed onto breakfast cereal have always seemed to be more about marketing than health. Most, I’ve been told, get washed off by the milk or end up in the bottom of the box.
Thank you to Post for listening to your customers and returning Grape Nuts to its four ingredient formulation. It’s great to see a national brand do an about face on a terrible decision, and to do so in relatively short order.
Now, never mess around with Grape Nuts again. Okay?
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
No GMO wheat, eh? Monsanto has the stuff in the chamber but it is not available yet… But hopefully it comes out soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/opinion/we-need-gmo-wheat.html?_r=0
Ahhh, never mind. I reread your sentence. I thought you were saying there was no GMO wheat in the cereal which confused me. I get it now.
“But hopefully it will come out soon.”
So you are ‘hoping’ that a genetically manipulated version of wheat which has the capability of eliminating non-GMO wheat by cross contamination will soon be made available in the US? You do know that GMO crops are undesired and opposed by more than just supposed tin-foil hat conspiracy theory types? I know that the media works desperately hard to convince the public that there is no difference between GMO and non-GMO crops and that anyone who says otherwise is a crazy nut that can’t be believed or trusted however there are countries that oppose GMO.
If you are even an infrequent reader of this blog You would know that regardless of the blog owners opinion on GMO they prefer foods as close to natural as possible and no, GMO is far from natural.
@FLB
Other than New-Coke, have you seen or know of any other instance where a food manufacturer/supplier of a consumer end product has done a turn-a-bout this quickly with regards to a formulation change with their product? I for one am glad that decision makers at POST got wise to the epic mistake they made with changing their classic GRAPE-NITS cereal. That said its still concerning that someone with formula changing decision making authority changed the product in the first place. It’s not like the topic of consumers of natural/organic food products disliking soy was unknown at the time the change was made.
I have no proof of this and I admit it but based on my experiences I would guess that someone was compensated in some way when the cereal was switched over to using SOY. I think its important to address this because too often middle to large size corporation made shotty short term decisions based on short term bottom lines. They act today to increase the bottom line for the next 1 – 4 quarters but think nothing of the long term ramifications of their decisions. Case in point is offshoring of jobs which was very popular and profitable in the beginning because only a small percentage of business was doing it. Once enough have jumped on to that bandwagon a threshold is crossed where enough local employees have been negatively impacted by the offshoring that the sales revenue goes down because these employee who have been laid off or have jobs making less are now unable to make the same level of purchases as before.
Hi there! I have a quick question about grape nuts, as I have just bought my first box of the cereal. The box I have says “the original” on the front, but when I look at the ingredient list, ISO is listed as one of them. Should I be looking for a different box? Thanks for any and all help!
The box I have in front of me says “soy free” in a small purple circle towards the bottom of the front panel. Look for that and you’ll be okay.
Grape Nuts has only been Whole Grain since 2005. Before that the original formula was different!
Help! I just bought my first box of Grape-Nuts in maybe 50 years and they are NOT the same. I in fact, they taste awful. The Grape-Nuts that I remember used to taste slightly sweet and nutty. The new Grape-Nuts have no sweetness and aside from some bitterness, have no taste at all. Does anyone know what has happened? I tried to Google it but this site is as close as I came to an answer. Perhaps it is time to call Post. Thanks so much.