General Mills has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration proposing that the standard for an “excellent source” be at least 16 g, while 8 to 15 g would be a “good source.” Manufacturers of products such as bread and pasta say this unfairly favors “dry” products such as cereal and crackers over their “wet” products whose water content makes it unlikely that they could hit the 16 g mark.
It’s an important issue because the new U.S. Department of Agriculture food pyramid calls for increased consumption of whole grains, and food analysts say that unless there is some way to identify whole grain products (through an identifying mark, logo, declaration, etc.), consumers won’t know what products to eat. General Mills said it based its petition on USDA’s definition of a whole grain serving.
