'Crumbs are part of who we are': General Mills defends its messy Nature Valley bars

Nature Valley bars have a near-mythic quality about them. They've been around for 42 years, but only in recent years have the memes and gifs and YouTube skits taken over — all to emphasize that, if you want to enjoy one, some tidying up will be in order.

Turns out General Mills is well aware of this controversy, and it has some choice words for the haters: Get over it. (Or, as the Nature Valley Twitter account sassily recommends in its pinned tweet, "EMBRACE THE CRUMBS.")

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He couldn't point to an exact moment when the bars became an Internet sensation. But there have been General Mills meetings to discuss the best crumb-marketing strategies.

That's not to say the company doesn't respond to critics' pleas. It still needs to retain its status as the number-one granola bar in American households.

For instance, Siemienas says developers recently changed the formula to make the granola bars easier to bite. (Anything to prevent the bars requiring excess force, upping the crumb production unnecessarily.)

But asked if General Mills would ever consider changing the recipe to minimize the crumbs, Siemienas held firm.

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