Kellogg

This is what potato chip politics looks like: Upset with the internal struggles of Kettle owner Diamond Foods, Pringles is abandoning its would-be buyer and running off with Kellogg Co. instead. Pringles, which is owned by Procter & Gamble and makes stacked potato crisps served out of a long canister, offered itself up to Kellogg's for nearly $2.7 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close this summer; Kellogg's said it would welcome Pringles' 1,700 employees. Two of Procter & Gamble's manufacturing facilities - in Tennessee and Belgium - are also included in the deal.

Russell Arms Actor who started on 'Your Hit Parade' Russell Arms, 92, a singer and actor who was a regular vocalist on the popular TV musical program "Your Hit Parade" from 1952 to 1957, died Monday at his home in Hamilton, Ill., where he had retired with his wife, Mary Lynne. The Lamporte-St. Clair Funeral Home in Hamilton confirmed his death but did not give the cause. Along with other regular cast members Gisele MacKenzie, Snooky Lanson and Dorothy Collins, Arms performed what were billed as the seven most popular songs in the country every Saturday night on the NBC show.

Kellogg Co has agreed to drop advertising claims that Rice Krispies will strengthen children's immune systems, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday. Kellogg had agreed in February 2009 to stop claiming that its Frosted Mini Wheats were "clinically shown to improve kids' attentiveness by nearly 20 percent." In an advertising campaign that began in about July 2009, Kellogg began advertising on cereal boxes that Rice Krispies "now helps support your child's immunity."

Procter & Gamble Co. has nixed its deal to sell its Pringles potato chips business to struggling Diamond Foods Inc., agreeing instead to a $2.7-billion all-cash offer from Kellogg Co. The transaction, which is expected to close this summer, will allow P&G to exit the snack-food business and gives cereal maker Kellogg a popular addition to its line of snacks. Pringles — stacked, crispy chips served out of distinctive long canisters — racked up $1.5 billion in sales last year and are sold in more than 140 countries.

FDA to Kellogg: One of your facilities is contaminated with listeria. Clean it up.  That’s the gist of a warning letter, dated June 7, the Food and Drug Administration sent to Kellogg after a February inspection of a cookie plant found Listeria monocytogenes , the bacteria that causes the food poisoning listeriosis . The Augusta, Ga. plant makes various Keebler and Famous Amos cookies. The agency didn’t find the pathogen in any Kellogg foods, but on and around conveyor belts in the production line.

Kellogg Co. acquired Russian cookie company United Bakers Group. The maker of Corn Flakes and other cereals didn't disclose the purchase price, saying it wouldn't have a material effect on income this year. United had sales of about $100 million last year and almost 4,000 employees, Kellogg said.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -- Kellogg says it will pull health claims from its Rice Krispies cereal box due to the public's growing concern about swine flu. The food company began adding antioxidants to the cereal last year and noted on the cereal box that these antioxidants help support the immune system. But Kellogg said Wednesday it will phase the message out of its packages over the next few months, given the public attention on swine flu. It will not alter the ingredients in the cereal.

Kellogg Co. said it was conducting a six-month test in Detroit of new cereal boxes that are shorter and deeper than traditional boxes. Kellogg said the new size is the most significant innovation in cereal boxes since the 1950s. The tests affect the majority of Kellogg's branded cereals, including Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes and Special K. The new boxes use about 8% less packaging material per box. The company made the change to address consumers' concerns that the taller, thinner boxes now used don't fit well in kitchen cupboards, said John Ferro, Kellogg's director of commercialization.

Cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. asked stores around the country to remove a variety of peanut butter crackers sold under the Austin and Keebler brands after a recall by a supplier involved in a salmonella investigation. Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America is the supplier that recalled some of its peanut butter because of possible salmonella contamination. Battle Creek, Mich.-based Kellogg said in a statement that it had not received complaints or found a cause for concern. A national salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 430 people in 43 states.

When local boosters chose a Bavarian theme to turn this depressed mining town into a fairy-tale tourist village, they had in mind a Cinderella transformation. After four years, what they've got is more like Beauty and the Beast. A quaint wooden sign proclaiming "Willkommen zu Kellogg" sits near a mile-long heap of mining debris. Downtown, false-fronted shops mimicking old German architecture share Main Street with dumpy, dirty brick buildings. Kellogg is not the first down-and-out Western town to try to revive itself by dressing up as something it's not. Tourists with a good road map and a willingness to suspend their disbelief can find simulated frontier cowboy towns, Bavarian hamlets and 19th-Century mining villages scattered across the West.

FDA to Kellogg: One of your facilities is contaminated with listeria. Clean it up.  That’s the gist of a warning letter, dated June 7, the Food and Drug Administration sent to Kellogg after a February inspection of a cookie plant found Listeria monocytogenes , the bacteria that causes the food poisoning listeriosis . The Augusta, Ga. plant makes various Keebler and Famous Amos cookies. The agency didn’t find the pathogen in any Kellogg foods, but on and around conveyor belts in the production line.

Almost half a century ago, in an epiphanic moment of marketing genius, Kellogg's is credited with inventing the Pop-Tart. Your very own individually wrapped piece of pie. In a toaster. Since that happy occasion, the Pop-Tart has become a part, literally, of the pop culture landscape: Milton the talking toaster, if you watched commercials in the '70s, or more recently last year's Times Square Pop-Tart pop-up shop. Devotees of the Pop-Tart may also remember an old Dave Barry story, in which the humorist set a strawberry Pop-Tart on fire in his toaster, just to prove he could.

Cal Poly Pomona announced Monday that it has been awarded a $42-million cash gift — the largest such donation in the history of California State University — by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, whose cereal magnate founder established an Arabian horse ranch in the hills that is now part of the campus. The grant will be given over five years, beginning with an initial $10 million in August, followed by yearly awards of $8 million, officials said. The money will be used to increase the enrollment of first generation college students, recently emancipated foster youth, military veterans and other underrepresented populations in Southern California.

Kellogg Co has agreed to drop advertising claims that Rice Krispies will strengthen children's immune systems, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday. Kellogg had agreed in February 2009 to stop claiming that its Frosted Mini Wheats were "clinically shown to improve kids' attentiveness by nearly 20 percent." In an advertising campaign that began in about July 2009, Kellogg began advertising on cereal boxes that Rice Krispies "now helps support your child's immunity."

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -- Kellogg says it will pull health claims from its Rice Krispies cereal box due to the public's growing concern about swine flu. The food company began adding antioxidants to the cereal last year and noted on the cereal box that these antioxidants help support the immune system. But Kellogg said Wednesday it will phase the message out of its packages over the next few months, given the public attention on swine flu. It will not alter the ingredients in the cereal.

Signs of an improving economy might be in your kitchen or bathroom cupboards. Consumers are showing a willingness to pay a little more to get big-name brands, including Colgate toothpaste, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Gillette Fusion shavers. That's good news for the economy and the multibillion-dollar companies that make those products and have been battling to keep shoppers from trading down to store brands to save money. Procter & Gamble Co., Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Kellogg Co. all gave upbeat earnings reports last week and even stronger outlooks for next year.

Take one child. Administer sugar. What happens? Apparently one side effect isn't paying better attention. Cereal giant Kellogg Co. has agreed to settle federal claims that the Grand Rapids, Mich., company falsely advertised the benefits of eating Frosted Mini-Wheats, including that children who ate the cereal got a 20% boost in attentiveness compared with children who skipped breakfast. The Federal Trade Commission decided the claims were a stretch.