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Inside General Mills - May 6, 2010

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Dessert Mixes were honored with an award named for the grand master of innovation: Thomas Edison.

At a ceremony in New York City, the mixes were held up as a best-in-class innovation alongside the Kindle II digital reader from Amazon, an electronic stethoscope from 3M and a residential wind turbine from Honeywell.
 
“We’re honored to have one of the strongest brand icons in the food industry associated with one of America’s greatest inventors,” says Jodi Benson, Baking R&D and transformational business development director for General Mills. “It has been extremely rewarding to welcome gluten free consumers back to Betty Crocker through this innovative line of products.”

The product took first place in the consumer packaged goods food segment.The Edison Awards – named for the inventor of the electric light bulb, recorded sound and commercial electricity generation – honor a variety of innovative products in 11 different categories.

First national gluten-free brownie
Betty Crocker was the first nationally recognized brand to launch gluten free brownie, cookie and cake mixes in traditional grocery stores.

Since the gluten in wheat flour provides the structure for traditional brownies, cookies and cakes, creating dessert mixes without gluten is a significant and remarkable technical achievement.

“The Edison Award winners are the moving parts in the engine of economic growth,” said Sarah Miller Caldicott, great grandniece of Thomas Edison and chairperson of the Edison Awards steering committee. “They inspire people to think outside the box, and their results improve the lives of people around the world.”

The Edison Best New Product Awards are given annually. The awards are a peer-review honor similar to the Oscars and are voted on by roughly 2,000 members of the not-for-profit Marketing Executives Networking Group, which includes America’s top executives and academics.