Cheerios: Nourishing Lives from seed to spoon

September 01, 2011

As an example of our Nourishing Lives mission, it’s hard to beat Cheerios.   Oats – a primary ingredient in Cheerios – require less fertilizer and herbicide than other major cereal grains. Oat roots contain a naturally occurring herbicide that deters weed growth, and their fibrous structure helps keep soil rich by preventing erosion.

Leftover oat hulls from the milling process are converted to energy that powers homes and our own oat mill. Cheerios boxes made of 100 percent recycled paperboard can be recycled and remade into new Cheerios boxes seven times over. And the soluble fiber in oats can help lower cholesterol.

From the time oat seeds are planted to the moment the last spoonful of O’s is scooped up from a cereal bowl, there are a number of ways Cheerios nourishes lives and the planet.

The seeds: A natural beginning The story begins with a seed.

“General Mills is using marker-assisted breeding, which speeds up the natural process of seed selection, to create the best oat seeds possible,” says Tom Rabaey, senior research agronomist. ”Through our oat genome project, we’re producing oat seeds that are more nutritious, disease resistant and efficient to process.”

Even without these improvements, oats are already a crop that usually uses less herbicide, pesticide, insecticide and fertilizer than other major crops.

“Oats have a natural ability to improve soil health,” Rabaey says. “Their fibrous root structure helps prevent erosion, and their dense growth and thick leaves prevent sunlight from reaching lower growing weeds.”

Plus, oat roots are allelopathic, meaning they contain a naturally occurring herbicide that deters weeds.

“On top of that, oat crops typically rely entirely on rainfall for hydration – they’re usually grown in northern climates where they don’t need irrigation,” Rabaey says.

Oats, a major ingredient in Cheerios, are a crop with many sustainable features. And General Mills is one of the larger users and handlers of oats in North America.

Oat hulls: A renewable energy source After oats are harvested, they move on to General Mills’ Fridley and Minneapolis plants, where they’re milled into oat flour for Cheerios. Oat hulls are a byproduct of the milling process, and every year 90,000 tons of hulls are generated at our two plants.

“We burn those oat hulls as a clean, renewable energy source,” says John Hellweg, bio-mass project manager. “Our new biomass boiler uses about 10 percent of those hulls to supply 100 percent of the processing steam and heating needs at our Fridley plant.”

“Then we still have extra hulls, and those are used by Koda Energy to generate electrical power to 17,000 homes each year,” he says.

Leftover hulls beyond that are used as a healthy, natural insoluble fiber in the manufacturing of breads and cereals.

And the ash that results from burning those hulls is now being gathered and used as fertilizer on nearby agricultural land.

“The ash is an extremely good fertilizer,” Hellweg says. “It helps bring the PH of the soil into balance and replenishes potassium, phosphorus and numerous trace minerals that are depleted during agricultural plant production.”

Efficient cereal processing Milled oat flour is shipped as directly as possible to the General Mills plants that make Cheerios . Those plants are working hard to minimize their environmental impact.

Since fiscal 2006, the plants that produce Big G cereals have reduced, on average, (as of the end of fiscal 2010) their:

• Energy consumption rate by 14 percent.
• Solid waste generation rate by 25 percent.
• Water usage rate by 22 percent.

Around the company, plants that make Cheerios are trimming their use of natural resources.

Our facility in Lodi keeps more than 90 percent of its waste out of landfills. Organic clippings – grass, leaves, plant trimmings – are composted. Wood, metal, fiberboard, plastic and paper are recycled. Cereal byproducts are used in animal feed.

At our plant in Covington, we’ve installed nearly two dozen energy meters on several pieces of equipment to optimize their efficiency. Since 2008, we’ve saved more than $1.2 million in energy costs.

And at our Cedar Rapids facility, we’ve engineered a system that measures cold air outside and determines whether it’s more efficient to use outside air to cool inside the plant. When it is, cool winter air replaces cooling systems. The system has saved millions of dollars in energy costs since it first came online in 2006.

Cedar Rapids also reduced water use by 24 percent between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2010, and last year alone we recycled more than 190 tons of plastic there.

General Mills plants worldwide have set ambitious new sustainability goals for 2015, which include reducing our energy rate by 20 percent and our solid waste generation rate by 50 percent.

Recycled packaging for decades The story of Cheerios as a nourishing brand continues as those O's are packaged.

Like all General Mills cereals, Cheerios retail cartons are made from 100 percent recycled paperboard and have been since the 1930s. Recycle a Cheerios box, and it can be made into another box over and over – up to seven times. Once recycled paperboard can’t be made into packages any longer, it gets used for things like insulation.

And Cheerios , along with all our cereals, is now using less plastic in cereal liners. We estimate that we’ll save about 500,000 pounds of plastic per year.

A healthy, nutritious breakfast When Cheerios boxes arrive in kitchen pantries, the most obvious form of nourishment begins.

“Cheerios are a healthy choice for breakfast or snacks,” says Suzie Crockett, senior technology officer with the Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition (BIHN). “Oats are an important ingredient in Cheerios , and oats contain a lot of beta-glucan, a soluble fiber that has been proven to help lower cholesterol.”

The soluble fiber found in oats is linked to a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. Three grams of soluble fiber daily from whole grain oat foods, like Cheerios , in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Cheerios cereal provides 1 gram per serving.

The oats in Cheerios are also a whole grain, meaning they contain all three parts of the grain: the bran, endosperm and germ. Less than 5 percent of Americans get the amount of whole grains recommended by the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

With more than 16 grams of whole grain in each serving, Cheerios is a good start toward the recommended 48 grams per day. And, at about 25 cents a serving, eating a bowl of Cheerios is an affordable – and healthy – way to start the day.

Cereal eaters tend to have higher nutrient intakes and healthier body weights. And eating cereal also promotes milk consumption in children – particularly African-American and Hispanic children.

Studies show kids who eat breakfast perform better at school.

Nourishing communities The Cheerios nourishing story continues as it extends out into the community as a whole. The brand supports programs like Spoonfuls of Stories, which has distributed almost 50 million children’s books in Cheerios boxes in the past decade.

Cheerios has also donated more than $3.5 million to First Book, a nonprofit organization that helps get books into the hands of low-income children. A study revealed that in middle-income neighborhoods, there are 13 books for every child. But in low-income neighborhoods, there’s only one book for every 300 children.

By putting books inside Cheerios boxes, the brand team hopes to inspire families to take a few minutes each day to enjoy a good book together.

 

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