Weetabix

Weetabix (originally "What-a-Wheat") is a whole grain wheat breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited in the United Kingdom. It comes in the form of palm-sized (approx. 9.5 cm × 5.0 cm or 4" × 2") rounded rectangle-shaped biscuits. Variants include organic and Weetabix Minis (bite-sized) versions. The UK cereal is manufactured in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, and in Canada and exported to over 80 countries. Weetabix for the North American market (Canada and the U.S) is manufactured in Cobourg, Ontario, in both organic and conventional versions.

Weetabix is made from whole grain wheat and the version sold in the United Kingdom has 3.8 g of fibre in a 37.5 g serving (2 biscuits). The product sold in North America has 4 grams of fibre in a 35 g serving.

History

Weetabix is the British version of the original Australian Weet-Bix. Both Weet-Bix and Weetabix were invented by Bennison Osborne, an Australian. Weet-Bix was introduced in Australia through the company “Grain Products Limited” in the mid-1920s, with funding from businessman Arthur Shannon and marketing assistance from Osborne’s New Zealand friend Malcolm Macfarlane. To both Osborne’s and Macfarlane’s disappointment, Grain Products sold both its Australian company (in 1928) and then its New Zealand company (in 1930), to the Sanitarium Health Foods Company. Osborne and Macfarlane then went to South Africa where Arthur Shannon, the owner of Grain Products, funded another Weet-Bix factory. While in South Africa, Osborne modified his Weet-Bix recipe and with Macfarlane, obtained private funding and began the development of a new company, The British and African Cereal Company Limited, naming the new company's product, Weetabix. The company commenced business in England in 1932 in an unused gristmill at Burton Latimer, near Kettering. In 1936, the name of the company was changed to Weetabix Limited.