What Is The Actual Brand Behind Aldi's Fan Favorite Millville Cereal?

It's no secret that Aldi, the popular discount grocery chain, doesn't manufacture its products. Instead, the company relies heavily on outside producers. However, Aldi tends to be pretty hush about who supplies what, and it maintains the mystery by packaging each item's contents into a company-owned private label. As a result, several online guides, like this one about the name brand behind Aldi's Winking Owl wines, have tried to identify the major brand names behind Aldi's wares. And when it comes to the company's beloved Millville brand cereal, there's a trail of crumbs to follow. 

While it's hard to confirm with total certainty which recognizable brand is responsible for Millville cereals, there's an established connection that pinpoints Post — the company behind Honey Bunches of Oats, Raisin Bran, and Shredded Wheat — as the possible hidden brand that makes Millville. Incidentally, it all comes down to Post's relationship with Malt-O-Meal, also affectionately known as MOM.

The first thing to mention is that there are some big similarities between each company's product line — Aldi's Millville brand cereal offers generic versions of classic name-brand cereals, such as Frosted Flakes, Frosted Shredded Wheat, and Raisin Bran. However, the tangible link between Post and Millville can be traced back to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recall notice placed back in 1998.

Within the press release, the CDC explains that the recall is for Millville brand Toasted Oats due to an outbreak of Salmonella Agona. Here's where it gets interesting — the notice goes on to speculate that the product's exposure to the bacteria could have been due to contact with MOM brand cereal: "It is also possible they may have been exposed by another plain toasted oats cereal product produced by the same plant (Malt-O-Meal) which makes Millville brand products." Tellingly, Malt-O-Meal recalled its name-brand rendition of the product simultaneously.

In 2015, Post Holdings purchased MOM Brands Co. for $1.15 billion. This was hailed as a great move by the then-CEO of MOM Brands (now an Executive Vice President at Post Holdings) Chris Neugent. "I think this combined company gives both MOM Brands and Post the resources needed to be a fresh voice in this category," Neugent told the Star Tribune at the time. "I think that's certainly what the consumer wants."

So, where does that leave us? Well, according to the aforementioned CDC recall, Millville and Malt-O-Meal are (or were, at least) made in the same plant. "Malt-O-Meal produces a large number of generic brand names of toasted oats, which are distributed nationally," the notice also stated. Malt-O-Meal's plants now belong to Post, so does that mean Post are the ones producing Aldi's cereals for them? Until some concrete proof to the contrary emerges, this will remain the most prevalent theory about the true origins of Aldi's beloved Millville cereal.