Red River Cereal facts for kids

The Red River Cereal is a type of hot cereal, like porridge, that people eat for breakfast. It's made from a mix of different grains: cracked wheat, rye, and brown flaxseeds. This special cereal was first made in 1924 in Manitoba, Canada. In 2022, a company called Arva Flour Mill bought the brand.

The Story of Red River Cereal

How It Started

Red River Cereal was first created in 1924. It was made by a company called Red River Grain Co. A few years later, in 1928, another company, Maple Leaf Milling Co., took over making it. The cereal got its name from the Red River of the North. This river flows through the valley around Winnipeg, Canada.

In 1995, a company called Robin Hood Multifoods, Inc. bought the Red River brand. This company was part of Smucker Foods of Canada Co.. After Smucker's owned the brand, they decided to stop selling Red River Cereal in regular stores in the United States. People in the US could only buy it online or by mail.

Changes Over Time

In 2011, there was a notice from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They found that some Red River Cereal packages had soy in them, but it wasn't listed on the ingredients. Soy is a common food that some people are allergic to.

Because of this, the company temporarily stopped selling the cereal. They changed the packaging to clearly warn people about the soy.

In 2014, after the cereal was brought back, its recipe was changed. The new ingredients included "Steel-cut Wheat, steel-cut Rye, cracked and whole Flax." The packaging also said it "May contain Barley, Mustard, Oat, Sesame seed, Soybean, and Triticale ingredients." Later, the cereal was re-labeled as a product from the United States.

A New Beginning

Around 2020, during the start of the CoViD-19 pandemic, Red River Cereal stopped being sold in Canada. People hoped it would come back later that year. However, in March 2021, Smucker's announced they had stopped making Red River Cereal completely.

But the story didn't end there! On July 19, 2022, it was announced that Arva Flour Mills bought the Red River Cereal brand. Arva Flour Mills is a very old flour mill in Arva, Ontario. They officially bought the brand on June 1, 2022. They planned to start selling Red River Cereal again very soon at their own store and on their website. They also planned to sell it in other stores later in 2022.