Food manufacturers. The more I read about America’s insane-asylum of a food system, the more I’m convinced that food manufacturers are head honchos at the ol’ loony bin. Yes, farmers and consumers each have their role in creating a bizarre food system, but more than any other figures, food manufacturers, as captains of the food industry, are responsible for keeping prices high, driving prices down to farmers in order to steer marketing into absurd, bull-goose bozoland.
Case in point, earlier this year, Kellogg’s boosted prices on packaged food despite a historic collapse in commodity and milk prices. They have a business to run, right? Raises and workers and benefits. And of course….marketing. Gotta keep the crazy train rolling so here’s where the money that you spend on Frosted Flakes is going this year:
Kellogg’s Testing Logo on Corn Flakes
According to the advertising slogan, if you see Kellogg’s on the box then you know it’s Kellogg’s in the box.
But now the company has become so concerned about similarly packaged supermarket cereals, it has developed a laser to burn its logo on to individual Corn Flakes.
Movies envisioning the future of food with pills and powders are sooooo twentieth century. Laser-branded cereal? Keep your day job, sci fi writer.
But think about this for a minute: How can they afford to individually laser tag every flake, or even every other flake? It boggles my mind how much money these manufacturers have to throw around. But it all makes sense in a Madhatter’s Tea Party sort of way. The price of ingredients is so incredibly cheap that manufacturers like Kellogg’s can address every minute problem related to food production — like how incredibly stupid you are.
Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at Kellogg, said in a statement, “There has been an increase in the number of [private labels] trying to capitalize on the popularity of Kellogg’s corn flakes. We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else. We’re constantly looking at new ways to reaffirm this, and giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer.”
They think we’re total, drooling morons who have no idea what we’re eating, so they’re going to give their “golden flakes of corn” (gag) a branding. Makes perfect sense to me.
Your cereal dollars at work, hungry shopper. And your hard work on display, commodity farmers.
Get the feeling you’re being mocked?
it’s the latest in produce technology. gone are the days of tiny PLU stickers.
Perhaps Kellog could just brand the actual corn on the cob.
So, Helen from Kellogg’s says that they don’t make cereal for anybody else. Does this include Kashi, a cereal company acquired and wholly owned by Kellogg’s? Nowhere on the Kashi products does it say Kellogg’s, but they own Kashi. Is Kashi cereal production outsourced? Are Kashi/Kellogg’s contracting with General Mills or Weetabix to make their products? I’m not saying that this is the case, but please envision this ironic scenario. In the wacky world of grocery manufacturing, anything is possible.
El Dragon, you mention that the “…price of ingredients is so incredibly cheap that manufacturers like Kellogg’s can address every minute problem related to food production[...]” You have a great point. Even though many of these manufacturers have money to spend on real packaging problems, some will ride it out for as long as they can. Being in the trenches, I continue to see both old and new manufacturing anomalies in packaged grocery items. From defective glass containers made in China, to leaking cases of food oil made in the USA, some manufacturers are undoubtedly saving money by cutting corners.