Canadians like their….full two scoops! (Facts about Food Friday)
While most people probably recognize “two scoops” of raisins as part of the slogan for Raisin Bran, it’s not something I have heard much of in recent years.
I assumed they still made the cereal, but it’s not exactly a cereal you see on TV much any more, is it? I would say it was way more popular in the 80s and isn’t necessarily a cereal that current elementary school kids are begging their mothers for. I could be wrong, though! It’s not like I’m a subject matter expert on TV considering I rarely watch it.
Regardless, I know the box; I know the cereal; I know the jingle; I know the smiling sunshine. I even vaguely remember a TV show back in the 80s where they counted the raisins and wanted to sue because there weren’t enough raisins or something like that. I want to say it was Mama’s Family, but again, not a TV expert. ;)
The first time I saw it in Canada, though, I was supposed to see that Two Scoops is what they know it as! You can see that “raisin bran” is listed in the middle still, but that’s as a description of the cereal….not as the name.
Upon further looking, I discovered that back in the 40s in the US, it was determined that you can’t trademark “raisin bran” because it’s merely the ingredients or characteristics of the ingredients, so if anyone else wanted to describe their cereal with the same words, they would be allowed to.
This is why you’ll find that Kellogg’s (the owner of all of the ‘two scoops’ branding), General Mills, and Post all three have cereals named “Raisin Bran.” In Canada, however, only Kellogg’s is going to be seen as “Two Scoops” instead, helping it stand out against the competition. :D
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, yes, there ARE two scoops in every box, but the size of the scoop is what’s going to vary. ;) They actually put in the raisins based on weight and it increases proportionally with the size of the box. For an average size box on the supermarket shelf, it’s roughly 1/2 cup per scoop, for a total of one cup of raisins in the whole box.
Wyngz – The cool way to say “not wings” (Fun facts about food Friday)
I really hate when people spell things with a ‘z’ instead of ‘s’ anyway, but apparently this is a real thing now – A government issued mandate that requires food manufacturers to label certain types of food this way.
So basically, “wyngz” are any chicken products that are sort of shaped like chicken wings, but aren’t actually wings at all. In fact, this is the ONLY misspelling that’s allowed and it has to be exactly this way with both the ‘y’ and the ‘z’ in order to be legal.
Not only that, but there is an entire list of very specific details that must be followed:
- The chicken used in said “chicken product” has to be white meat
- “Wyngz” has to be in the same color font and not hidden inconspicuously
- Here’s where we start getting specific – The smallest letter in the name can be no smaller than one-third the size of the largest letter used in ‘wyngz’. Get out your rulers, folks!
- It also has to state that it’s not wing meat (or isn’t ‘just’ wing meat), such as “contains breast meat and wing meat,” and has to be linked by an asterisk next to “wyngz,” pointing people to a more specific description of what they may or may not want to eat now.
Digiorno is doing it right on their boxes there.
And actually, they’re going one step farther by trying to make this sound like a great thing. If you go to their website, they explain that the reason for the “fancy spelling” is “Because they’re not wings. They’re even better!”
/facepalm
Really, I think this one sums up the new “spelling” quite nicely:
(Gah! My spell check was really angry at me for this post of “wyngz,” ha!)
Cheerios + Circus Peanuts = Lucky Charms? (Fun Facts about Food Friday)
Yep, that’s right.
Lucky Charms are actually the result of a challenge given to product developers back in 1962 to come up with a creative twist on one of their main cereals (either Cheerios or Wheaties). John Holahan came up with the idea of mixing circus peanuts with Cheerios. General Mills’ advertising company suggested marketing it around the idea of charm bracelets and voila, Lucky Charms were born!
Another fun fact is that the “cheerio” portion was not originally sugar coated, but it didn’t sell very well, so they tossed in more sugar and people suddenly loved it. It stayed the exact same way until 2005 when they released chocolate flavored ones and then later on, marshmallow treats.
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