Cheerios made the news recently for airing a commercial that shows a little girl in a biracial family use the toasted whole grain oats to win her dad’s heart. I mention it because I’ve longed for the cereal since arriving here in South Africa.
Walk down the cereal aisle at a grocery store in Kwa-Zulu Natal and you may find Cheerios, but the oats somehow lack the flavor of Cheerios one finds in the states, where they’re manufactured by General Mills. Nestle makes the South African version at a plant about 37 miles north of Pretoria, according to BakeryAndSnacks.com, a trade publication.
Meanwhile, the Cheerios sold in the states have changed. Though the whole grains that go into Cheerios always have been free of genetically modified organisms, General Mills announced in January that the cornstarch and sugar used in the cereal are now GMO-free as well.
The change, which occurred over the past year, applies to original Cheerios. Eliminating GMO’s from other types of Cheerios, including Honey Nut and Apple Cinnamon, would be “difficult, if not impossible,” a company spokesman told CNN Money.