The Untold Truth Of Froot Loops

Wake up and pour yourself a bowl of corn flour blend, sugar, wheat flour, whole grain oat flour, oat fiber, soluble oat fiber, a smidge of hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, Red 40, natural flavor, Blue 2, turmeric color, Yellow 6, annatto color, Blue 1, and a helping of BHT "for freshness" for a — wait. Sorry. Pour yourself a bowl of Froot Loops for a complete breakfast.

In fairness, as Kellogg's also lists on their website, the creation of Froot Loops includes pumping it with the following added vitamins and minerals: vitamin C, niacinamide, reduced iron, zinc oxide, vitamin B6, vitamin B2, vitamin B1, vitamin A palmitate, folic acid, vitamin D, and vitamin B12. 

The reason behind this blatant look at what goes into a box of Froot Loops is that such overt manufacturing (as exemplified by the ineffable category of "natural flavor") speaks to a cereal with a similarly processed and questionable history. 

According to some corners of the internet, Froot Loops was originally called Fruit Loops but had to be rebranded after an early lawsuit lobbed by Rene Paxton. The issue, however, is that the case of Paxton v. Kellogg's does not appear to exist. 

The main source for this name change comes from Snack History. Snack History cites its claim with a link to a 2009 article about a contemporaneous lawsuit concerning the lack of fruit in Froot Loops shared on Over Lawyered. In the comments section of that page, a person pulls "Renee Paxton in Paxton v. Kellogg's[citation needed]" from Wikipedia. The Paxton case apparently occurred six months after Froot Loops was introduced as a substitute for OKs in 1959. However, in addition to Kellogg's claim that Froot Loops entered the world in 1963, we have archived footage of a Yogi Bear commercial for OKs that aired in 1960. 

The fact that the case received no citation on Wikipedia, that there were factual inconsistencies, and that between 2009 and the writing of this article that section of the Froot Loops Wikipedia page has been removed all serve to question the existence of Paxton vs Kellogg's. Upon further searching, no primary sources or credible secondary sources document the lawsuit — not even the aforementioned 2009 lawsuit, which surely would have drawn on the name change as Kellogg's defense against any attempts to deceive the general public.

When Froot Loops first appeared on store shelves, Mr Breakfast notes, it came with red loops, orange loops, and yellow loops. In theory, the colors represented cherry, orange, and lemon respectively and as more colors were introduced to Froot Loops, like blue for blueberry, the palette grew to consist of a whole fruit bowl.

However, the reality is that red stands for red, orange for orange, yellow yellow, and blue blue. The colors mean nothing more than a decoration to brighten the bowl of what would otherwise be substandard Cheerios. This isn't a secret, as Kellogg's admitted that Froot Loops only come with one flavor to Straight Dope in 1999. But, as seen, the internet is fickle when it comes to such information, leaving article writers to express shock over and over as they reaffirm the unfavorable truth about the colorful cereal. 

In 2014, FoodBeast decided to test this fact for themselves. They found in a blind test that no one could identify any of the Froot Loop colors based on the taste. However, as HuffPost writes, colors have conditioned us to preemptively expect certain flavors. They describe an experiment where culinary students could not identify sodas if those sodas were dyed a different color, indicating that regardless of what our tongue may report, we still use our visual sense to compile a flavor profile. Froot Loops, though all the same in taste, provide the illusion of difference.

Froot Loops in its original form benefited from the relatively lax regulations imposed by the FDA. So, when the cereal entered British grocery stores in 2012, changes were implemented to adhere to the country's food regulations.

The most striking change listed by The Fact Site is that Froot Loops in the UK only consisted of orange, purple, and green loops. This was because at the time, products had to use natural additives and flavoring. These Loops, as Ark's Ark wrote, were colored with carrots, blackcurrants, and spinach and nettles. Kellogg's failed to find natural substitutes for the red, yellow, and blue loops. Other changes in the formula gave the British Froot Loops a coarse texture, larger size, and slightly different taste. Perhaps the product was not as addictive when made in this manner, as The Fact Site claims that Kellogg's withdrew Froot Loops from the UK in 2015 due to lack of demand. 

However, Froot Loops did have a limited time comeback with Unicorn Froot Loops. Not featuring Toucan Sam, these Froot Loops, as covered by Cosmopolitan, ran for a limited time with — guess what — a unicorn gracing the box art. Still, British fans of Froot Loops and American expats need not gnash their teeth as both the London-based American Food Store, which imports hard to find American groceries, and Sainsburys have Froot Loops on offer on their websites, but they're the American-made, artificial color-filled versions.

Froot Loops Cereal Straws were on a long, 12-year hiatus, until a petition by a certain fan named Hannah Wade caught Kellogg's attention. But what's a cereal straw, you may ask? Let us explain: The Froot Loops straws had a fruit flavored crunchy cereal texture, with a lining of cream on the inside. Now, to eat the straws as a breakfast meant pouring yourself a bowl of milk, then using the straw to stir, dip, and sip, while also intermittently taking bites off of them. As Wade wrote in the Change.org petition, these straws were discontinued in 2009. "People around the world seem to be nostalgic for this delicious treat from our childhood. Bringing back Froot Loops Cereal Straws would bring joy to my generation and generations to come," she wrote. 

Kellogg's first heeded the petition a year after it was started in 2017 by bringing back the straws (albeit, a starkly different version from before) for just a week, at Kellogg's Cafe in New York (via Eater). But that wasn't enough. Fans continued to add signatures to the petition, which by 2021, had the support of around 82,000 cereal straw-lovers. Finally, in October 2021, Kellogg's decided to bring back the straws for good (via Taste of Home). They're currently available in two flavors, Cocoa Krispies and Froot Loops.

While Froot Loops can make your bowl of cereal look like a molten rainbow, it's not the ultimate sunshine for your health. We aren't just talking about the sugar content, but also the artificial colors that the cereal uses. Froot Loops uses synthetic colors red 40, yellow 5, blue 1, and yellow 6. These are made with artificial dyes, and as per The Washington Post, there are several studies which associate the consumption of these dyes (not just in Froot Loops, but also in actual fruits like oranges, and raspberries) to behavioral changes — hyperactivity, and inattentiveness — among children. An early '90s study even touted that the dyes red 40 and yellow 5 and 6, might be carcinogenic. Though a report on Verify clarifies that Froot Loops dyes do not cause cancer.

Kellogg's promised that it would have all its cereals and snack bars free of artificial colors and flavors by 2018 (via Reuters). But alas, they did not keep their promise, per Food Dive. Instead, they added a new star-shaped wild berry flavor (the first new Froot Loop in 10 years) in 2018. This was introduced at a time when more people were slowly distancing themselves from unhealthy breakfast options. Kellogg's and other cereal-making giants such as Post and General Mills tried to entice their fans with new shapes (the star-shaped berry), and brilliant colors ... and these tactics worked (via CNN).

It's not just humans — it turns out rats like Froot Loops, too. Which is why scientists have used the colorful loops as treats in studies involving these rodents. In 2016, a team of scientists at Boston University's Center for Memory and Brain used the modest Froot Loops for a complex study related to human memory (via Futurity). For this, they hid Froot Loops in two pots — one covered with black paper shreds that smelled spicy, and the other covered with purple plastic beads that smelled sweet — and had the rats find them based on the smell and texture they sensed.

In yet another study, conducted in 2019, scientists at the University of Richmond taught rats to drive cars (not like the fancy red roadster Stuart Little drove, but a plastic DIY one) by tempting them with Froot Loops. According to the CNET report, the scientists had built a tiny plastic car, with copper bars that acted as a kind of steering wheel for rats. The rats drove around in a 43 square foot area, always moving towards the Froot Loops cereal which was their reward. 

And, it's not just the rats, possums and raccoons seem to like the cereal, too. But what we're most curious to know is whether it means anything to a toucan? It sure does for this one. Sam, is that you?

While the internet is still divided on pineapple as a pizza topping, here is another topping idea to stoke the 'za debate: Froot Loops. Iowa-based Fong's Pizza thought it would be a great idea to slather some sweet cream cheese sauce on the pizza dough, then load it up with mozzarella and Froot Loops, along with some Greek yogurt and condensed milk. Reacting to this new entrant in the pizza-verse, a Twitter user wrote, "i take back everything i ever said about pineapple on pizza [...] we must unite to fight this common foe." For pizza purists, Fong's "Loopy Fruits Pizza", as it's called, might seem a blasphemy, but Fong's founder Gwen Page told TODAY the pizza is a way of giving her customers a "truly unique experience." 

Page went on to add, "It's just a reminder to folks to be silly, live life, and have fun, because that's really what this pizza is all about: having fun." Well, not all saw the fun in it, obviously. In fact, responding to the news of Fong's innovation, DiGiorno, a brand of frozen pizzas, tweeted, "Please do not disrespect the word pizza like this." 

But just when we thought the Froot Loops Pizza would remain within the folds of one Iowa pizzeria's menu, Hollywood got a whiff of it. Actress Jennifer Garner has her own recipe for a Froot Loops-topped pizza — one that uses store-bought pizza dough, Nutella, marshmallows, and chocolate chips.