Cerealvit Product Review and Giveaway!!

I love Cerealvit gluten-free cereals!!

I received some complimentary samples of Cerealvit cereal a while back to review on my blog. I have been waiting to post my review because I was one of the lucky early recipients of their newest cereal, Choco Stars! I did not want to tease my fabulous readers with a product that wasn’t yet available, and by patiently waiting it out (not one of my strong suits); the Choco Stars will be included in this giveaway! WOO-HOO!

The Choco Stars were a HUGE hit with my 6 and 2 year old boys (especially my 2 year old, Luke, who I think just might be the world’s biggest chocolate fanatic! Seriously. He ate 4 Brussels sprouts the other day that I had put shaved chocolate on just to see if it would work!

Cerealvit is a brand of cereal imported from Italy by Riega Foods, LLC; a dietary health company that develops, imports and markets great tasting and high quality foods. Riega Foods focuses on bringing great products to those of us with special dietary needs, like those of us on the gluten-free diet and with other food allergies.

Check this out from Riega Foods website:

When a person has special dietary needs it is important to know what is in your food and where it is made.  That is why we fully disclose all ingredients and clearly list what other common allergens causing ingredients are used in the facilities where our foods are made.  With the Riega brand we even give you a quick reference stamp in the upper right hand corner of our packaging.  This stamp quickly lets you know if our foods are appropriate for you.

Riega Foods also understands that those with gluten intolerance need lower levels of gluten in their food than the FDA currently allows.  That is why we will not sell a single product labeled as gluten free that is not tested and confirmed to contain less than 20 ppm of gluten.

You can find our products at many natural/health food stores, specialty retailers and grocery chains nationwide.  If your store does not carry our products, then you can print out a store request card and take it to your local store and ask them to carry our products.  If you are a store looking to carry products from Riega Foods then simply email or give us a call.  We would be delighted to work with you.

Very cool company! With the sudden explosion of gluten-free foods from all sorts of companies, (some great and some not so great), it makes me feel a lot safer to buy from companies that have high standards and test their products to make sure the levels of gluten are below 20ppm!

All Cerealvit cereals are sold in 13.25-ounce boxes, which is the largest average sized box of cereal for any line of organic, gluten free cereal on the market. Cerealvit gluten-free cereals have on average, 10 – 40% MORE cereal than other organic, gluten-free cereals! The Cerealvit package is almost as big as an average sized package of General Mills Chex cereal, which is 13.8-ounces. And for further comparison, the Choco Stars package is BIGGER than a box of General Mills Cocoa Puffs cereal, which is 11.8-ounces (Cocoa Puffs are NOT gluten-free, by the way).

Did my comparison give you a good visual of the size of Cerealvit Cereals? 🙂

As for the price of Cerealvit cereals, they retail anywhere between $4.99 and $5.49 each (more or less), depending on where you buy them. As for where to buy the cereal, Riega Foods is in the process of rebuilding their website right now but they will have a “Where to Buy” page available soon. I have not found them at any store in the Albuquerque area yet, but I am going to go visit my local Whole Foods Markets and R. Downs to ask that they start carrying them!

Now for what really counts… how the cereals taste!

I am going to start with the boys’ favorite, Choco Stars! I always stress over sugary kid cereals. I read all the articles about how horrible they are in the nutrition category and I can certainly see why. Even if you do not consider the sugar and fiber content in a “proper” serving size of many famous “kid” cereals (and seriously, who ever pours out a 3/4 cup bowl of cereal?); just reading the ingredient label alone is like reading a scientific textbook! I am not a scientist… I have no idea what half of the ingredients are!

Which leads me to what I really like about the Cerealvit Choco Stars (as well as the other Cerealvit Cereals): I UNDERSTAND what the ingredients are (no Wikipedia required)! Since I am not a nutritionist either, I will not go into the nutritional aspect of the cereal; but as a mom, I did notice that Choco Stars have less sugar than many of the other “kid” cereals out there. I am going to use Cocoa Puffs as a comparison because it is the only mainstream brand of chocolate cereal that I can think of at the moment.

Choco Stars cereal by Cerealvit: a 1 cup serving has 8.7 grams of sugar

Cocoa Puffs by General Mills (again, NOT gluten-free): a 3/4 cup serving has 12 grams of sugar. (To be fair, General Mills has made a commitment to reduce the amount of sugar in 10 of their cereals that are marketed to children, click here to read more).

I want to show you the Nutrition Label… (I used an extra large photo for easier reading, so if it is beyond huge on your browser, please accept my apologies! 😀 )

See the ingredient label? Even Sam knew what the ingredients are!

The boy’s ate the entire box within a few days (which is exactly why Choco Stars and other sweet cereals are a “treat” in our house!). 🙂

Now for my personal favorite of all the Cerealvit cereals, the Corn Flakes!

The Corn Flakes are probably the best corn flakes I have ever had. The flakes are thicker than the average “flake cereal,” which really helps them stand up to the milk and not get soggy and mushy. The flavor of the corn flakes impressed me even more as the corn flavor is very pronounced. Much more so than other cornflakes, gluten-free or otherwise. They are also light on the “sweetness factor,” which I like a lot!

Only 3 ingredients and 1.2 grams of sugar!!

Well, 1.2 grams of sugar before I did what I did with them! I used some of the corn flakes to make Christmas wreath treats over the holidays:

The Coffee Flakes were an interesting surprise. If you are someone who likes coffee flavored foods, then you will love them. While I LOVE a hot cup of coffee, I typically I do not care for coffee flavored foods (except for Tiramisu, but even then, one bite is enough for me). Sam though… loved this cereal!! Is that normal for a 6 year old boy?? 🙂

The Benevit cereal was also good (from what I can remember). I did not get to have much, because my father-in-law swiped the box! Mike’s dad is really trying to watch his sodium intake these days and he has had a hard time re-adjusting his taste buds to the low-sodium diet. He was so happy with the taste of the Benevit cereal, that I could not NOT let him have the package! 🙂

Here are some links to other blog reviews on Cerealvit Cereal:

Gluten Free Steve

Celiacs In The House

Gluten Free Is Life

Would you like to try a sampling of Cerealvit gluten-free cereals? Well, read on… (hey, you made it this far didn’t ya?! 😉 )

Brad, from Riega Foods, has generously offered to give to TWO of my readers a prize package consisting of one each of the 4 varieties of cereal that I just reviewed!

In order to enter the giveaway, just leave a comment to this post answering the following question:

“What one product do you miss the most from the “gluten days” that you would really like to see a gluten-free packaged version of?” Something that you cannot find or cannot find that tastes good…

To kick things off, I would love a gluten-free Fig Newton and Sam said he wishes for a gluten-free Pop-Tart!

What do you miss the most?

I will use a Random Number Generator to pick the two winners on Monday, February, 15, 2010 (President’s Day)!

Good Luck! 🙂