Starbucks Adds Healthier Ingredients, New Breakfast Items
Bloombergreports that Starbucks is introducing food without preservatives and additives, including fresh Oregon blueberries in its muffins and no high-fructose corn syrup in its Marshmallow Dream bars.
Fresh Oregon blueberries are replacing artificial ingredients in muffins and baked goods, while the Marshmallow Dream bar will come without high-fructose corn syrup, said Sandy Stark, vice president of the food division. Two salads, an egg-white breakfast sandwich and a strawberry-banana Vivanno smoothie round out the new food options in U.S. stores.
"We really wanted to up the quality of our food," Stark said in a June 26 telephone interview. "We wanted something that we could be as proud of as we are with our coffee, and we knew we had a long ways to go."
The new foods are appearing after more than a year of testing and reworking recipes with a focus on healthy, natural ingredients, Stark said. Last year, the company redesigned its breakfast sandwiches following complaints that the smell overpowered the coffee aroma in stores.
Starbucks is adding three new items according to its press release: Blueberry Oat Bars, Banana Walnut Bread (pictured on the right) and Marshmallow Dream Bars.
In other Starbucks news, the coffee company is planning to exclusively sell a high-grade variety of fair trade-certified Rwandan coffee in Britain and Ireland in 2010.