2012: Dulce de Leche Cheerios, no-lactose Yoplait, fruity Lunchables

By Tiffany Hsu

Jan. 1, 2012 12 AM PT

This month, some of the most popular brands in grocery store aisles will feature new offerings that try to appeal to consumers’ growing preferences for healthy foods, premium varieties and global flavors.

Kraft Foods Inc. has more than 70 new products planned for 2012. Many of them are billed as “better-for-you” options, including Philadelphia Cooking Crème offshoots such as Reduced Fat Italian Cheese & Herb and Reduced Fat Savory Garlic.

There’s also more fruit in Lunchables Lunch Combinations, with pineapple bits paired with the BBQ Chicken Dippers and applesauce with the Turkey + Cheddar Flatbread Sandwiches as well as with the Ham + American Flatbread Sandwich.

Through the end of May, General Mills will introduce 50 new products, including lactose-free and granola-studded Greek Yoplait yogurt options.

Cheerios will show up in multi-grain form, with real peanut butter and 110 calories per serving. There also will be Dulce de Leche Cheerios, a flavor the company said is most popular with Latino customers but likely also will do well in the general market.

In a blog post, General Mills spokeswoman Maerenn Jepsen highlighted new product trends that will feature strongly in competitors’ lineups.

Among them, Jepsen lists “the growing influence of multicultural consumers on American taste preferences and consumers’ desires to either add or avoid certain ingredients in their diets, whether seeking more whole grain or protein or avoiding lactose or gluten.”

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