Yet more Fiber One

January 14, 2009 at 6:31PM

Yet more Fiber One Not content with transmuting Fiber One from several kinds of breakfast cereal into half a storeful of extra-fiber products, now the General Mills folks have brought forth Fiber One complete pancake mix, a three-pancake serving which contains 5 grams of fiber -- 20 percent of the recommended daily amount. It's not sweet: A serving of Fiber One pancakes contains 4 grams of sugar; the same-size of some other brands contains 7 grams of sugar.

It goes without saying that the added fiber somehow makes Fiber One pancakes cost more than regular pancakes. At one discount supermarket, Fiber One mix costs 39 percent more per ounce than the Aunt Jemima mix.

Upscale Lunchables Among all the snazzier versions, you can still find the simple original Oscar Mayer Lunchables: At one store, the tray of eight Ritz crackers and eight little slices each of lunch meat and pasteurized cheese product, total 4.5 ounces, costs $1.69 (ham and Cheddar) or $1.52 (turkey and Cheddar).

But Lunchables' bright-yellow packages are marketed as kid food. Sophisticated adults need something more ... sophisticated, such as Oscar Mayer's new Deli Fresh Combinations, in shallower trays in earth-tone packaging. Each contains eight Ritz crackers and eight little slices each of lunch meat (four each of two kinds) and pasteurized cheese product (four each of two kinds), total 4.5 ounces. OK, each tray also includes one Andes chocolate mint worth about 7 cents and weighing about a sixth of an ounce.

You know what's coming: The Deli Fresh versions cost about 50 cents more each.

AL SICHERMAN

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about the writer

Al Sicherman

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