Here’s Why General Mills Is Launching a Keto-Friendly Product Line

General Mills has launched a new keto-friendly product line called :ratio, making it the company’s first attempt to target consumers following the diet.

Keto food products are low in sugar and carbs, and it’s a diet trend that is favored by many consumers. The ketogenic product category is expected to grow 5.5 percent through 2027. Furthermore, the ketogenic diet market accounted to $9 million in 2018. It is expected to grow to $15 million by 2027. Consumers that are health conscious and have issues such as weight gain and obesity look at the ketogenic diet as a solution. A typical ketogenic diet restrict carbohydrates to less that 10 percent of calories and limits protein to 20 percent, whilse making fat the main intake. Europe has the largest population of consumers who follow the keto trend, followed by North America. The search frequency for “keto” saw an 850 percent increase in search volume between January 2016 and 2020.

The product line includes yogurt cultured dairy snacks and crunchy bars that are high in protein, rich in flavor and texture and conveniently available. The products have carefully selected ingredients that make the snacks keto-friendly and have two grams of net carbs and one gram of sugar per serving.

“In launching :ratio’s keto-friendly products, we want to ensure that convenient, delicious snack options are available for various lifestyles and dietary choices,” Tsubasa Tanaka, director of marketing at General Mills said in a statement. “No matter what individual goals are, we hope :ratio’s crunchy bars and dairy snacks can be an enjoyable snack swap that people look forward to and feel good about reaching for while working towards their goals.”

The yogurt flavors for the :ratio dairy snacks include: Strawberry, Coconut, Vanilla, Mango and Blackberry. The crunchy bars are available in Lemon Almond and Toasted Almond. The ingredients in the bars include real almonds and pumpkin seeds.

Related: Will Keto-Friendly Ice Cream be the New Trend?

Many food industry gaints are developing keto-friendly lines to appeal to the growing number of individuals following the diet. Halo Top, for example, introduced seven flavors in its Keto Ice Cream product line, which only include five to 10 grams of net carbs per pint. Other keto ice cream brands include Enlightened, which released two keto ice creams earlier this year. Rebel Creamery also has a popular Butter Pecan flavor targeted to consumers on the ketogenic diet.

Companies such as Nestlé have invested in the ketogenic trend as well. Nestlé introduced a ketogenic creamer in 2018. The creamer is part of what people on the ketogenic diet call a “bullet-proof coffee.” The grass-fed butter is added into their morning coffee as a substitute for milk.

Duncan Hines introduced a keto-friendly cake mix earlier in 2020. The keto mix flavors include: Birthday Cake, Walnut Fudge Brownie and Double Chocolate Cake. Each keto cake mix cup has zero grams of added sugar, five grams of net carbs and eight to 10 grams of protein.

The :ratio dairy snacks and crunchy bars are available at select retail locations in the US and are also available online. They are available at a retail price of $1.49 per cup for the dairy snacks and $7.99 per four-count box of crunchy bars.