Kix (stylized as KiX) is an American brand of

breakfast cereal Cereal, formally termed breakfast cereal (and further categorized as cold cereal or warm cereal), is a traditional breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in ...

introduced in 1937 by the

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 ...

company of

Golden Valley, Minnesota Golden Valley is a western and first-ring suburb of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The city is mostly residential and is bordered by U.S. Highway 12 (Interstate 394). Over 15% of the city is parks or nature reserves. ...

. The product is an

extruded Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex c ...

, expanded puffed-grain cereal made with

cornmeal 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'', ...

Products

General Mills introduced Berry Berry Kix in 1992 and Honey Kix in 2009. In Original Kix, total sugars are about 10% by weight, which is about 3 grams of sugar per serving. Honey Kix has 6 grams, Berry Berry Kix has 7 grams.

Production

The grain is processed and expanded: water is added and the corn is pulverized. Kix are cooked in the ''extruder'', when the dough is formed into the desired shape by

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex c ...

through a

die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

. It was the first cereal to be manufactured using this process. Experimentation with the Kix puffing process led to popular brands like

Cheerios Cheerios is a brand of cereal manufactured by General Mills in the United States, consisting of pulverized oats in the shape of a solid torus. In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Cheerios is marketed by Cereal Partners under the ...

(1941).

Promotions

In 1947, Kix offered a

Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

atomic bomb ring in exchange for a box top and 15 cents. The ring contained a

spinthariscope A spinthariscope () is a device for observing individual nuclear disintegrations caused by the interaction of ionizing radiation with a phosphor (see radioluminescence) or scintillator. Invention The spinthariscope was invented by William Crook ...

, so that when the red base (which served as a "secret message compartment") was taken off, and after a period of time for

dark adaptation Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low l ...

, you could look through a small plastic lens at scintillations caused by

polonium Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84. Polonium is a chalcogen. A rare and highly radioactive metal with no stable isotopes, polonium is chemically similar to selenium and tellurium, though its metallic character ...

alpha particles Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay, but may also be prod ...

striking a

zinc sulfide Zinc sulfide (or zinc sulphide) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula of ZnS. This is the main form of zinc found in nature, where it mainly occurs as the mineral sphalerite. Although this mineral is usually black because of various i ...

screen.

Advertising

The

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...

"Kid Tested. Mother Approved." was introduced in 1978. During the 1980s, television commercials included the

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

"Kids love Kix for what Kix has got. Moms love Kix for what Kix has not," the latter a reference to its claims of no added

food coloring Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels, and pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food ...

flavors Flavor or flavour is either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception. Flavor or flavour may also refer to: Science *Flavors (programming language), an early object-oriented extension to Lis ...

. In 2018, the slogan was updated to "Kid-tested. Parent-approved" in order to avoid imposing traditional parenting roles.

References

External links

*
Ingredients and nutrition facts from General Mills
General Mills cereals Products introduced in 1937 {{food-product-stub