Just Trix, No Tricks: General Mills Removing All Artificial Colors And Flavors From Cereals

Removing artificial ingredients from products has become a food brand domino effect. Last year, Kraft and Panera Bread made similar promises to remove artificial ingredients, and Pepsi and Coca-Cola have started to distance themselves from artificial, chemical sweeteners. The latest beloved food brand to take the "all-natural" plunge is General Mills. The company has just announced that it will remove all artificial colors and flavors from its cereals by the end of 2017.In case your childhood memories of the cereal aisle are a bit fuzzy, this means that artificial ingredients will be totally removed from Trix, Reese's Puffs, Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Wheaties, and Cocoa Puffs, among General Mills' many other brands, some of which are already artificial ingredient-free.

Two of the most popular brands, Trix and Reese's Puffs, will be the first to undergo this change, with Trix to now use real fruit juices and spices to achieve the familiar brightly colored sweet fruit-shaped pieces. Reese' Puffs will employ only natural peanut butter, cocoa, and vanilla flavors. You'll be able to see these new and improved brands on grocery store shelves by this winter.

"We have a lot of hard work ahead of us and we know some products will present challenges as we strive to uphold the taste, quality, and fun in every spoonful of cereal," said Kate Gallager, cereal developer at General Mills. "Cereals that contain marshmallows, like Lucky Charms, may take longer, but we are committed to finding a way to keep the magically delicious taste as we work to take out the artificial flavors and colors from artificial sources."