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Who owns General Mills? Company trolled for 'shrimp tails' in Cinnamon Toast Crunch: 'More like general krills'

The company's response of the 'shrimp tails' being 'accumulated sugar' despite picture evidence provided by Jensen Karp more than once, is what initially started the trend

If you're wondering why Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Topanga (yes, actress Danielle Fishel from 'Boys Meets World') is trending on Twitter, then we have some "wild" news for you. Jensen Karp, a writer and TV producer, took to Twitter to call out the brand after he found "shrimp tails" in his cereal. The whole thing took a bizarre turn after the company claimed that they weren't "shrimp tails," but rather was "accumulated sugar" as they offered him "vouchers" and asked him to send what he found in a "prepaid envelope."

The back and forth between Karp and the brand was shared by the writer on Twitter for "full transparency," with so many tweets, that the cereal brand started to trend on the social media channel. While things went further down the rabbit hole as Karp decided to test the additional "black marks" on his individual sugar cereal squares at a lab after thinking it could be rat droppings, the Internet finally discovered who he was - Topanga's husband! The beloved 'Boy Meets World' actress Danielle Fishel is married to Karp and people didn't think the saga could get any "wilder."

The company's response of it being "accumulated sugar" despite picture evidence provided by Karp more than once, is what initially started the trend. Read on to find out who owns General Mills, who has many cereal brands under their name.

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Who owns General Mills?

The founding members

General Mills, Inc., is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods whose HQ is in Golden Valley, Minnesota. The company has many items under its umbrella such as breakfast cereals, baking goods, and even organic food. Besides Cinnamon Toast Crunch, there are many other cereal brands under the company including French Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Clusters, Reese's Puffs, Fiber One / Fibre One, and Trix. The company also markets big brands such as Pillsbury, Crocker and Yoplait. As per Britannica, General Mills, Inc is one of the largest food service manufacturers in the world. 

Encyclopedia reveals that the origins of General Mills date back to 1866 when the first flour mill was opened in Minneapolis, Minnesota by Cadwallader Washburn - the business was originally called Minneapolis Milling Company. Later they joined their once competition Charles A. Pillsbury's Pillsbury Flour Mills Company (founded in 1869) to make up the Minneapolis Millers Association. Washburn ended up making his product "the best flour available in the United States" and Pillsbury did the same thing allowing for Minneapolis to become the country's flour milling center. 1877, John Crosby and Washburn form a partnership resulting in the company's name being changed to Washburn Crosby Company. In the year 1880, the companies flours were honored with gold, silver, and bronze medals at the first International Millers' Exhibition that was held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then they changed the name of their best flour to Gold Medal. 

In 1888, Washburn was replaced by James S. Bell as the head of the Washburn Crosby Company and in 1928 General Mills made its debut with 5,800 employees and annual sales of $123 million. It is reported that the man behind the creation of General Mills, Inc was Bell's son, James Ford Bell by "consolidating the Washburn mill with several other major flour milling companies around the country, including Red Star Milling Company of Kansas; Sperry Milling Company from the West Coast; Larrowe Milling Company of Michigan; the Kell Group from the Southwest; and the Rocky Mountain Elevator Company, the Royal Milling Company, and the Kalispell Flour Mill."

Washburn, Crosby and Bell are listed as the founders of vast company.

Chairman and CEO

On June 1, 2017, Jeffrey L. Harmening was named chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of General Mills. He was also further elected to serve as a chairman of the board of directors effective January 1, 2018. Harmening who had joined General Mills in 1994 had served as president and chief operating officer for General Mills - both roles were awarded to him in July 2016. In 2003, he was also named vice president of marketing for Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW) which is "is a 50-50 joint venture between General Mills and Nestle that manufactures and markets ready-to-eat cereal products in more than 130 countries outside of North America." Its headquarters were in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In June 2007, he assumed his role as president of the General Mills Big G cereal division and was later promoted to the role of senior vice president in April 2011. He then went to Europe in 2012 and was CEO of Cereal Partners Worldwide till 2014. In 2014 he was then named executive vice president, chief operating officer of the largest division of General Mills, the U.S. Retail segment. The official website further reveals, "During Harmening's leadership of the U.S. Retail business, the company greatly expanded its position in the natural and organic segment, including the acquisition of Annie's and EPIC Provisions. That made General Mills the fourth-largest maker of natural and organic foods in the U.S."

Harmening graduated from DePauw University and had started as a financial analyst at Eli Lilly and Company from 1989 to 1992 before getting his MBA from the prestigious Harvard University in 1994. He is also a Trustee at DePauw University and serves on the board of the Consumer Brands Association and The Toro Company.

'There’s no way this wasn’t intentional'

After the "shrimp tail" incident with Karp, General Mills was trolled on Twitter by many who thought their response to Karp was "wild." "Lmao, I ran a packaging line of cinnamon toast crunch for a year..even when the cinnamon sugar built up on any part of the equipment it NEVER BECAME SHRIMP TAILS. WHAT KIND OD RESPONSE IS THAT GENERAL MILLS!!??," wrote one user. Another added, "General Mills should just burn down that factory this cereal was made and start over. It’s the only way i can ever get over this! " Things got even more serious when another user shared, "I worked for General Mills for several years as a Project Engineer. I even worked at the plant that makes Cinnamon Toast Crunch. There’s no way this wasn’t intentional." The shrimp jokes also made its way with one saying: " General Mills more like general krills am I right."

In fact, this isn't the first time the brand has had an incident where shrimp was the center of attention. Catherine Ngai who covers China markets Bloomberg took to Twitter to share a New York Times article writing, "Best read of the day: https://nytimes.com/2021/03/23/style/cinnamon-toast-crunch-shrimp.html?fbclid=IwAR2TQ1TRJ2wB-TS75WylTfy3ZbkAmbd_t_L_dPBoyaNH1KIQXHiVhl9zeDM… "This is not General Mills’ first shrimp rodeo. In 2011, the company sued a Michigan blueberry packer after a shipment — which was intended for future use in blueberry scones — was found to be contaminated with pieces of shrimp." Some of course simply joined in on the fun with another user writing, "If you guys aren’t tracking the Cinnamon Toast Crunch shrimp debacle I suggest you get up to speed ASAP To be clear: no matter what PR & possible shellfish inclusion mistakes General Mills has made here, my love for CTC is endless and unshakable."

Karp himself tweeted screenshots of email exchanges between him and General Mills writing, "I can’t believe this in a real life, publicly traded company." The email sees the company tell Karp that since he wasn't going to send them what he found in his cereal box, that he should take it to "local law enforcement" claiming that this could have been "product tampering." Karp is seen replying, "I am not walking into a random police station telling, 'Here's the shrimp tails that General Mills wants!' like it's a smoking gun from a murder."

The last update from Karp at the time of writing this article read: "Am happy to report: a Carcinologist (crustacean researcher) that works at NHMLA is going to morphologically identify the shrimp using microscopy and he will work with a team of researchers to use DNA to try and identify the putative shrimp down to species. THIS IS HAPPENING. They also are paying for this to be done, which is helpful when a corporation is telling the internet I actually found wads of sugar. So basically, my shrimp got a scholarship. "

Nor Karp, nor the company have clarified as to what was actually found in the cereal, Karp's tweets set off a series of speculations which could be false.