Chocolate Trend Continues to Evolve - Now It's at Breakfast!

CHICAGO, Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Everything in life is better when the day starts with a little chocolate. This consumer insight helped drive Quaker Oats' latest innovation -- new Life Chocolate Oat Crunch(R), a chocolate cereal for adults that's healthy too. Made with a delicious touch of real chocolate, each serving of Life Chocolate Oat Crunch provides 2 servings of whole grains, 3 grams of fiber and 10 essential vitamins and minerals. Life Chocolate Oat Crunch is also a low fat and low saturated food that provides one gram of oat soluble fiber. Three grams of soluble fiber from oats daily, as part of a low saturated fat, low cholesterol diet can help remove cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.

"The chocolate trend is on the rise and it's showing up in the most unexpected places from fashion runways to indulgent spa products," said Jordan LeBel, PhD, Associate Professor at Cornell University and one of the leading experts on emerging chocolate trends. "The good news for chocolate lovers is that Quaker is advancing the current chocolate movement and bringing real chocolate satisfaction to breakfast in a guilt-free way."

Life Chocolate Oat Crunch joins four existing Life Cereal varieties: Life, Cinnamon Life, Honey Graham Life and Life Vanilla Yogurt Crunch, all of which are made with whole grain Quaker oats. It also qualifies as a Smart Spot food choice, a designation created by PepsiCo to identify a food or beverage that contributes to healthier lifestyles based on criteria from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Academy of Sciences.

"Consumers have told us they want a healthy cereal that also satisfies their chocolate cravings," said Regan Ebert, Quaker Foods vice president of marketing. "As a trusted source in breakfast nutrition, we created Life Chocolate Oat Crunch as a healthy indulgence with a grown up taste."

Life Chocolate Oat Crunch will be available nationwide starting this month. The suggested retail price is $3.49.

ABOUT QUAKER OATS

In 1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the first food- specific health claim to Quaker Oats for soluble fiber in oats and its heart- health benefits. The Quaker Oats Company, headquartered in Chicago, is a unit of PepsiCo, Inc., one of the world's largest consumer packaged good companies. Quaker's brands include Quaker Oatmeal, Cap'n Crunch and Life cereals, Rice-A- Roni and Near East side dishes and Aunt Jemima pancake mixes and syrups. Additional information may be obtained by visiting quakeroatmeal.com.