Entering a new era of snacking fun

As the originators of the Fruit Snacks category, General Mills knows a thing or two about developing not only great products but also eye-catching brands. 

For the first time in eight years, General Mills is refreshing its fruit snack portfolio, comprised of three iconic brands – Fruit Roll-Ups, Fruit by the Foot and Gushers – to give them all updated designs and brand profiles. 

The rebrand was aimed at unleashing what’s unique about each brand and building out multi-sensory brand worlds to create more enjoyable and distinct experiences for their core early teens to early adulthood audience.

“Creating an expressive and immersive brand experience for each of these brands was really important to us,” says Ta’mora Fuhrmann, Brand Design Manager for General Mills. “Brands today need the ability to connect meaningfully with consumers across a variety of touchpoints. For teens specifically, it’s imperative we fit seamlessly into their lives and deliver benefits that extend beyond the product.”

History of General Mills Fruit Snacks

Research and development on the concept of fruit snacks started in 1975 in the desserts division at General Mills when a new fruit filling was being developed for a cake mix.   

At the time, another company had a “fruit leather” product that was used as a benchmark to develop a similar, but better, product. 

General Mills’ version was tested and revised until it was ready to go into test markets in 1979, when the product became known as Fruit Roll-Ups.

Then in 1991, Fruit by the Foot joined Fruit Roll-Ups as a popular fruit snack.