New Wheaties Formulation in the Works

Wheaties, known for decades as "The Breakfast of Champions," has teamed up with an elite group of sports stars -- Peyton Manning, triathlete Hunter Kemper, Kevin Garnett, gold medal-winning decathlete Bryan Clay and Albert Pujols -- to usher in the newest incarnation of the classic cereal brands.The athletes collaborated with Wheaties food scientists and sports nutritionist Dr. John Ivy to develop a new cereal formula to best help meet their nutritional needs, with the specific aim of fueling athletic performance. This expert panel has narrowed the selection to three potential cereal formulas, and everyday athletes are helping to pick the formulation that makes the final cut. The winning product will be revealed on Sept. 9, 2009. Rather than replace the much-loved original Wheaties formulation, the new version will share space shelf with it. Together, the two products will make up the expanded Breakfast of Champions product lineup.Beginning last week, the five famous athletes will appear in a six-part Web series on www.wheaties.com/evolution that details the process behind the creation of the new Wheaties variety. The Webisodes culminate in a trip to a General Mills plant in Minneapolis."Our champions all are highly decorated in their respective sports and embody the Wheaties brand qualities by being winners both on and off the playing field," noted Wheaties marketing manager Dan Stangler. "By teaming up with today's leading champions, a leading sports nutritionist and everyday athletes, we have an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of all the nutritional advances since Wheaties was launched 85 years ago. This allows us to create a new Breakfast of Champions that will help fuel championship performance from pro sports facilities to sand lots to board rooms."Each potential cereal formula was based on a nutritional profile with athletes' needs in mind, among them endurance and energy. The first option is a lightly sweetened whole-wheat flake with granola and crispy rice and a bit of cinnamon and honey, the second is a lightly sweetened whole-wheat flake with cinnamon clusters, and the third is a lightly sweetened whole grain wheat and bran flake with fruit and almonds. The top three formulas are being taste-tested by a select group of everyday athletes that includes readers of Men's Health magazine, who are helping to decide which formulation gets the nod.The original Wheaties was born back in 1924, when a health clinician accidentally spilled a wheat bran mixture onto a hot stove. Nielsen Business Media

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New Wheaties Formulation in the Works

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