Bugles are a corn

snack A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snacks are p ...

produced by

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

and

Tom's Snacks Tom's Snacks Co. is an American snack food brand currently owned by San Antonio Snacks. The former "Tom's Foods Company" had been established by Tom Huston in Columbus, Georgia, in 1925. The business remained in the food industry until 2005 when ...

(under license from General Mills). Bugles in detail

History

Bugles were developed by a food engineer, Verne E. Weiss of Plymouth, Minnesota. Bugles were test-marketed in 1965 and introduced nationally in early 1966 as one of several new General Mills snacks, including flower-shaped Daisies; wheel-shaped Pizza Spins; tube-shaped Whistles; cheddar cheese-flavored Buttons; and bow-shaped, popcorn-flavored Bows, all of which were discontinued in the 1970s. From the time of their creation in the 1960s, General Mills' Bugles were manufactured at a plant in

West Chicago West Chicago is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 27,086 at the 2010 census. It was formerly named Junction and later Turner, after its founder, John B. Turner, president of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroa ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, until that plant's closure in 2017. Bugles and the other snacks were also produced in Lancaster, Ohio starting in 1981. It is now a Ralston Foods Plant part of Con-Agra.

Ingredients and varieties

General Mills Bugles are fried in

coconut oil frameless , right , alt = A cracked coconut and a bottle of coconut oil Coconut oil (or coconut butter) is an edible oil derived from the wick, meat, and milk of the coconut palm fruit. Coconut oil is a white solid fat; in warmer climates duri ...

, which contributes to their being significantly higher in

medium-chain triglyceride Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) are triglycerides with two or three fatty acids having an aliphatic tail of 6–12 carbon atoms, i.e. medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs). Rich food sources for commercial extraction of MCTs include palm kernel oil ...

saturated fat A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone and fatty acids that each contain a long linear or branched c ...

than similar snack foods, which are typically fried in

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...

or other vegetable oils. Bugles contain no

hydrogenated oils Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to reduce or saturate organic co ...

. The ingredients of Original Bugles are degermed yellow

corn meal Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

baking soda Sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogencarbonate), commonly known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda, is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt composed of a sodium cation ( Na+) and a bicarbonate anion ( HCO3−) ...

, and BHT. Ingredients for all variations of Bugles are listed on the General Mills website. Bugles produced under the Tom's Snacks label no longer use coconut oil, but rather "vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: canola oil, corn oil, or sunflower oil)." They have been available in the following flavors: Original, Nacho Cheese, Salt & Vinegar, Sour Cream & Onion, Ranch, Chili Cheese, Salsa, Smokin' BBQ, Churros, Southwest Ranch, Sweet and Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter, Sweet and Salty Caramel, Cheddar, Ketchup, Coriander, Cookies and Cream, Hot Buffalo, Shrimp, Jalapeño Cheddar, Hot & Spicy, and Hot & Spicy BBQ (Exclusively manufactured by

Tom's is a factory supported racing team and tuner of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The name stands for Tachi Oiwa Motor Sport. Their head office is located in Tokyo, Japan. They are currently heavily involved with Super GT, Super Formula and Super Formu ...

). In addition to original flavors, the brand has also had crossover flavors like with Hidden Valley Ranch and

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnamon Toast Crunch (CTC), known as Croque-Cannelle in French Canada and Curiously Cinnamon in the UK (previously Cinnamon Grahams), and as a variant called Cini Minis in other European and Latin American countries, is a breakfast cereal produc ...

. Bugles are so-named because of their "horn" or

bugle The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, normally having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure. History The bugle developed from early musical or communication ...

shape.

International sales

As of November 2014, Bugles were sold as Bugles in the United States, Canada, China, Denmark, Iraq, The Netherlands, and several more countries in Central America and the Caribbean. Bugles were discontinued in Canada in early 2010 due to a decrease in demand but brought back in November 2011 due to renewed consumer demand. On November 14, 2022 the official Bugles Twitter account confirmed that their products are no longer available in Canada. In the United Kingdom, Bugles were available in the early 2000s and manufactured by

Golden Wonder Golden Wonder is a British company that manufactures snack foods, most notably crisps. These include Ringos, Golden Wonder and Transform-A-Snack. Since 2006, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Northern Irish company Tayto, after bei ...

. They were discontinued after several years and brought back in 2016, now manufactured by Walkers. General Mills also licenses the name and shape to other manufacturers of the same product: * In Cyprus, Bugles are manufactured by People's Coffee Manuf. Ltd and are being marketed and distributed by Laiko Cosmos Trading Ltd. They are available in 3 flavors, Original, Nachos and Vinegar. *In Kuwait, Bugles are manufactured and marketed by the KITCO parent company. * In the United Arab Emirates, Bugles manufactured by IFFCO UAE under their Tiffany subdivision, and is marketed and sold as Bugles with similar styling to the U.S. Bugles. * In France, Bugles are manufactured and marketed by the Benenuts marque of Groupe Pepsico of France under the name 3-D's Bugles in various flavors, including natural, cheese, bacon, ketchup, and ham & cheese. * In Italy, they are called "Virtual" and have been produced by San Carlo. * In China, Bugles are manufactured and marketed by Pepsi. * In Taiwan, Bugles are named "Golden Horns" and have been manufactured by Serena Foods. * In Japan, Bugles are named "Tongari Corn" (とんがりコーン) and have been manufactured by

House Foods is one of Japan's largest food manufacturers and brands. It began in 1913 in Osaka as Urakami Shoten and began selling curry in 1926. House Foods is the world's largest manufacturer of Japanese curry, and is well known for its Japanese curry ...

since 1978. * In South Korea, they are known as "Kkokkal Korn" (꼬깔콘) and have been produced by

Lotte Confectionery Lotte Confectionery Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean confectionery company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. The company was established in 1967. Currently, it is the third-largest chewing gum manufacturer in the world, and its plants are locat ...

since 1983. * In Sweden and Norway they are known as "Sombreros", made by Estrella/Maarud. * In Israel they are known as "Apropo", and are made by Osem. * In Turkey, they are called "Cherezza Twist" and "Patos Critos" as they are manufactured by two different companies. * In Brazil, they are manufactured by Yoki, a brand of General Mills. * In Singapore, Bugles are manufactured by Tong Garden Food Products under license. Tong Garden fries its Bugles in

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...

. * In Poland, Bugles are sold by Frito Lay Poland Ltd. under "star" brand name. * In the United Kingdom, Bugles are sold by Walkers. * In the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden, Bugles are sold by

Lay's Lay's is a brand of potato chips, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay because both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the Frito-Lay company, which has b ...

as Lay's Bugles. * In Spain and Portugal, Bugles are manufactured by

Matutano Matutano (officially ''Matutano Snack Ventures, S.A.'') is a producer and distributor of snacks and potato chips with headquarters in Barcelona, operating the markets of Spain and Portugal (here through its subsidiary ''Matutano Unipessoal Lda.'') ...

under the name of 3-D's Bugles and only Bacon-Cheese flavour. * In South Africa, Bugles are Manufactured by Simba as Doritos 3D * In Argentina, Bugles are manufactured by PepsiCo as 3D's * In

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

they are manufactured by Fantasia Chips. * In Indonesia, Bugles product are held by Garuda Food as Garuda O'Corn snack since 2020. * In Jordan, Bugles are manufactured by Haddad Group's Mr. Chips brand.

References

{{General Mills Products introduced in 1966 Brand name snack foods General Mills brands