Cheerios

[MelinaM]

I contacted General Mills asking if anything in their cheerios cereal was animal derived. They claim no and that the vitamins they use are all synthetic.
Anyone have a similar response from General Mills?
I heard elsewhere on this board that Cheerios uses vit D3 which is derived from wool?? Anyone have anything to add??

thanks
Melina



Dear Ms. Bratton:

Thank you for contacting General Mills with your inquiry. There are no animal
products in most varieties of Cheerios, therefore they would be considered
vegan. The vitamins used in Cheerios are all synthetic.

Honey Nut Cheerios contains honey, and would not be considered vegan.

We hope you find this information helpful. Please let us know if we can help
you again.

Sincerely,

Craig Grey
Consumer Services

[PunkRockRapunzL]

What about Gen Mills cereals containing marshmallows? Do they use synthetic gelatin? I miss Lucky Charms and Frankenberry :(

[pghmountainbkr]

I saw this posted before

"Thank you for contacting General Mills with your inquiry. The
source of Vitamin D in cheerios is calcium"

This was also in the message...

"We use Vitamin D3 in our
8th Continent soymilk and that source is animal (lamb)."

maybe you were getting these two statements confused?

however as stated in that post, I didn't realize vitamin D could be derived from calcium either....


I also saw this on another webpage...
I have not looked at a GM food box recently so I could not say if this is true or not...

"General Mills said that their cereals without animal products have the letter "U" with a circle around it in front of the box. They said that since some sources change in their cereals, it was not possible for them to have a list of cereals suitable for vegetarians on the Internet. The best thing to do is look for the "U" on their boxes."

[MelinaM]

I only inquired about Cheerios. (I'm not a fan of sugary cereal)

If I saw the earlier post about vit D being derived from Calcium I would have laughed. This is not possible. Ca is an element. Nothing in it but Ca atoms. Vit D contains many elements!
Maybe there was some misunderstanding.
I read in an earlier post that Cheerios was not vegan. Maybe it was just an assumption based on reading the ingredidnt list and not being sure what the source of the vitamins are.

It wasn't the 8th continent post.
Anyways according to the response I got... Cheerios apear to be vegan (the plain ones that is)....

[Rie]

Yeah, they should be. Well, I hope they are at least. I eat them constantly.

[NDvegan85]

I was at the grocery yesterday, and a box of Honey Nut Cheerios had the "U" on it, and so did some other cereals that weren't vegan.

[WonderRandy]

I always thought the 'U' was to indicate that the product contained only kosher ingredients....

[*sprout*]

wow this thread has confused me
so is the conclusion they are vegan or they arent or some are ???!?!?!?!?!?!?!
:confused:

[MelinaM]

According to the letter from General Mills the plain cheerios are vegan. Obviously the Honey Nut Cheerios have honey in them so are not vegan.
I don't know about the other flavors of Cheerios.
I also don't know what the "U" means.

[ren]

i thought k was kosher and u had something to do with islam or something...

[Joyful-Eyes]

here are some links about the symbols....

http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-09-29/food_feature2.html

http://www.yrm.org/koshersymbols.htm

[Keegan]

I called them, they said it was non-animal, I emailed them, non-animal, emailed them, it was animal, so I don't know for sure?

[JavaPrincess]

the word calcium may have been a basterdization of calciferol these customer service reps dont have to be chemists to work there. If you really want to know ask them to specify if its D2 or D3

D3 is always animal whereas D2 is Plant - usually when things are fortified this is what they use to fortify it with (D2)

[shethatisnau]

NDVegan- A lot of omnivores don't consider honey to be an animal product, or worth worrying about and will label things with honey vegan. It's a debated topic even among vegans themselves, so it's upto the person to decide. If you don't eat honey, simply don't buy the Honey Nut Cheerios, obviously. :P

As for Cheerios being vegan, I sure hope they are...I've been eating them for the longest time now- Cheerios and Bite size Shredded Wheat (NOT the frosted kind! Ick!), and I've been under the impression they're both vegan. So, here's hoping!

[bluegrrrl79]

According to the letter from General Mills the plain cheerios are vegan. Obviously the Honey Nut Cheerios have honey in them so are not vegan.
I don't know about the other flavors of Cheerios.
I also don't know what the "U" means.

If it has just a U or K that means there is no diary or meat in it.

[soilman]

The U means that it is certified by a specific Kosher certification organization, the Union of orthodox rabbis or something, as being pareve. Pareve means suitable for being eaten with either dairy food or animal-flesh food. What is suitable for being eaten with dairy or flesh? Any vegetable-origin food, plus eggs, and honey, and maybe a few other things. Right, fish are pareve, as long as they are Kosher fish. Shellfish are not kosher, nor are certain other vertebrate fish. Shark isn't kosher. Catfish aren't kosher. Yes, as bluegrrrl said, anything without dairy in it and without "meat" in it. But "meat" basicly means "warmblooded" tho -- birds and mammals. Fish aren't "meat."

[Honu]

I know this line of posting has been idle for awhile now but I just contacted general mills about their cereals as well. I specifically wrote out all ingredients to all the chex cereals and cheerios. The company replied via email saying that none of them contained any animal bi-products and all vitamins were synthetic.

On the other topic...the U... kosher symbol. I contacted near east just for peace of mind as to which flavors of pilaf and cous cous were vegan. I had an issue with the "natural flavors". After much explaining, the customer service rep told me that U meant Kosher certified that it contained no meat derivatives and no dairy; UD meant dairy but no meat and M meant meat. I was excited to learn that I could now eat most of the pilafs and cous cous. Is this wrong? Does it in fact mean these products are "suitable to eat with meat and dairy" as one poster noted? I've tried looking them up and am still a little unsure. Thanks!

[bluegrrrl79]

I know this line of posting has been idle for awhile now but I just contacted general mills about their cereals as well. I specifically wrote out all ingredients to all the chex cereals and cheerios. The company replied via email saying that none of them contained any animal bi-products and all vitamins were synthetic.

On the other topic...the U... kosher symbol. I contacted near east just for peace of mind as to which flavors of pilaf and cous cous were vegan. I had an issue with the "natural flavors". After much explaining, the customer service rep told me that U meant Kosher certified that it contained no meat derivatives and no dairy; UD meant dairy but no meat and M meant meat. I was excited to learn that I could now eat most of the pilafs and cous cous. Is this wrong? Does it in fact mean these products are "suitable to eat with meat and dairy" as one poster noted? I've tried looking them up and am still a little unsure. Thanks!

Jewish people that keep kosher cannot mix dairy with meat. This means, if a product is Parve(kosher), it can be mixed with dairy or meat BECAUSE it has no meat or dairy in it. So many things with a U or K are safe to eat, with the exception that it may or may not contain eggs or fish. But you can just look in the ingrediants for that. Sometimes even a product with a "D" or "M" can be vegan as well, apparently if the machinery used to make the product is also used to make other foods that contain meat/dairy, it has to have the D or M on the label, even though it doesn't contain any.

[Honu]

thanks a bunch bluegrrrl79 ! that makes so much more sense now.