{"id":876814,"date":"2026-09-23T14:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T12:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=876814"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:26:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:26:37","slug":"iconic-pronutro-cereal-discontinued-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/876814\/iconic-pronutro-cereal-discontinued-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for iconic 64-year-old cereal brand in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The owner of the ProNutro brand in South Africa, PepsiCo, has discontinued the product after 64 years on store shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s customer care services confirmed that the product was discontinued after consumer complaints about the “new generation” formulation and the group’s inability to replicate the old version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After launch, some consumers told us the new product experience was not what they expected from ProNutro, particularly in relation to taste, texture and mixability,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We listened and explored options to bring back the original product experience, but we were unable to recreate the taste and texture consumers associated with the original ProNutro.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After a long and careful review, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue ProNutro in South Africa. We are grateful for the support consumers have shown the brand over many years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepsico faced massive consumer backlash in April after shoppers found a “new” ProNutro formulation on the shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media was awash with complaints that the new cereal formulation tasted bad and had a strange texture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This prompted an apology from the group<\/strong><\/a>, which said the change was mainly due to the need to replace the older equipment, which had become outdated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cereal brand said the older machinery used to make the cereal had become unreliable and could degrade product quality over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the backlash, Pepsico said that the old ProNutro formulation would not be coming back, but it would work through the feedback and try to improve things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConsumers expressed concern predominantly around the new product\u2019s texture and mixability,\u201d it said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the new production process will not fully resolve texture challenges, ProNutro have acknowledged consumer feedback and will focus on enhancing mixability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retailers soon started reporting low stock of the product, with some being told that production of the cereal had been halted and it would not be available for the rest of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, production will end entirely, with PepsiCo deciding to discontinue the product rather than deliver a formulation consumers don’t want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The customer care line said the discontinuation is immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ProNutro has a long history in South Africa, launching to the public in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became known as the world\u2019s first nutraceutical cereal, providing health benefits in addition to its basic nutritional value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brand said that the Original High-Protein Cereal delivered plant-based protein and energy, along with 13 vitamins and 4 minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1900s, the South African Institute for Medical Research developed the ProNutro brand to address the large-scale protein deficiency and malnutrition in South Africa at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the cereal was first introduced, the brand has expanded its range to include several flavours, such as chocolate, banana, strawberry, and original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some flavours that were introduced over the cereal\u2019s lifespan have been discontinued, such as the wholewheat honey melt flavour and the honey flavour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PepsiCo has discontinued ProNutro in South Africa after 64 years on store shelves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":858935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2102744467841163523","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2214079189412480","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18103972196348687","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[6819,25314],"class_list":["post-876814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-pepsico","tag-pronutro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876814"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876859,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876814\/revisions\/876859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}