Fiber One

Did You Know?

• In a 2011 survey of 50,000 consumers by the Better Homes and Gardens Association, Fiber One’s 90 Calorie Chewy Bar was voted the best new food product.
• The original Fiber One cereal was initially sweetened with aspartame (Equal), a non-nutritive artificial sweetener, to compensate for the lack of sugar.

History

The brand was introduced in 1985 as a breakfast cereal, resembling the shape and texture of the already released All-Bran Original cereal from Kellogg’s. General Mills released a second version called “Fiber One Honey Clusters” in 2005, which more resembled Post’s Honey Bunches Of Oats. The first line of Fiber One breakfast bars were released in 2007, followed by an expansion into yogurt, muffin and pancake mixes, and pastries. In January 2014, General Mills released a high-protein granola version under the name “Fiber One Protein”, available in maple brown sugar and cranberry almond flavor varieties. In January 2019, General Mills debuted “Fiber One Strawberries & Vanilla Clusters”, made with steel-cut oats and actual strawberries. The original cereal has been viewed as a healthy option for children and adults, being labeled as more nutritious than other sugary cereal options such as Cocoa Puffs in a 1989 consumer report. Annual sales of the brand’s products once exceeded 300 million dollars in 2010. In a 2011 survey of 50,000 consumers, Fiber One’s 90 Calorie Chewy Bar was voted the best new food product. The brand currently has a sub-brand of packaged protein bars sold under the name “Protein One.”

Ingredients

Each product is created to contain one or more whole grain ingredients, including whole grain wheat, whole grain oat, whole grain rice, chicory root (inulin), or bran, to boost fiber content. The majority of fiber in the cereal products is insoluble fiber. To compensate for the lack of sugar in original Fiber One, it was initially sweetened with aspartame; currently, some versions are sweetened with sucralose, and some have no artificial sweeteners.