General Mills

If you're having trouble deciding between an Italian restaurant or one that features seafood, you'll soon be able to make your choice as late as when you pull into the parking lot. That's because two chain-owned eateries, Red Lobster and the Olive Garden, will share a common parking area when they open at the site of the former Seafood Shanty at 2311 E. Lincoln Highway. Darden Restaurants, of Orlando, Fla., plans to open its new Red Lobster on March 18, while the Olive Garden is set to debut on April 1. The Red Lobster chain, founded in 1968 by the late Bill Darden and bought in 1970 by General Mills, now has more than 700 restaurants in the United States and Canada.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPS Wheaties won its bet that the Redskins would win the Super Bowl, which is why General Mills was able to get boxes of Wheaties with pictures of the Redskins on Washington-area store shelves so soon after the game. General Mills made 100,000 of the boxes beforehand. If the Redskins had lost, the empty boxes would have been destroyed. Instead it was the Buffalo Bills who were destroyed. BREAKFAST OF STATS Speaking of cereal, Kellogg's has begun shipping nearly 5 million packages of Rice Krispies with a new nutrition label that includes a column of figures marked Daily Value - the amount of each nutrient that a person is supposed to have each day, according to new FDA guidelines.

Most Americans can identify American junk food - greasy french fries and sugary cookies set the standard - but identifying ethnic junk food may be more difficult. Registered dietitians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham offer the following tips on enjoying your favorite ethnic foods without wrecking a healthful diet: Mexican food lovers should avoid fried tortillas, fried chips, sour cream and guacamole dip because of their high fat contents. The ground beef used in tacos and other favorites also is high in fat. Flour tortillas filled with beans, lettuce and tomatoes are a more healthful alternative.

This month, Campbell Soup Co. is commemorating 50 years of owning Pepperidge Farm Inc., the baking company still based in Norwalk, Conn., where it was founded in 1937. That history makes Pepperidge Farm an anomaly for Camden-based Campbell, which in the second half of the 20th century built itself into a food conglomerate with well-known brands such as Swanson, Vlasic, Mrs. Paul's, and Godiva, as well as long-forgotten restaurant chains and even pet food. Pepperidge Farm, purchased in January 1961, is the only free-standing U.S. business remaining from that era of diversification.

For more than 50 years, Progresso Quality Foods Corp. has been making soup in Vineland - practically in the backyard of Campbell Soup Co., the world's biggest soup-maker. Few have noticed the proximity of the fierce competitors because Progresso went through a succession of five corporate owners with distant headquarters since being sold in 1969 by the founding Taormina family. But Vineland - situated amid the rich South Jersey farmland that attracted both Progresso and Camden's Campbell - has remained Progresso's home base, where products have been developed and where the majority of Progresso soup is still made.

Rachel's Brownie and Slim Jim are headed for the altar. GoodMark Foods Inc., the Raleigh, N.C., maker of the spicy meat stick, announced last week that it has agreed to buy Rachel's Brownies Inc. of Malvern for an undisclosed amount. The sale is expected to be closed this month. GoodMark, a publicly held company, dominates the nation's meat-snack business with its Slim Jim, Penrose and Pemmican brands. It also makes Andy Capp's snacks and Jesse Jones packaged meats. The deal would fold Rachel's Brownies into a company more than 50 times larger.

Ray Lewis, you've just won the Super Bowl. What's next? "I ain't going to no Disney World," Lewis, the Baltimore Ravens' star linebacker, said in the Super Bowl day-after news conference yesterday. He said he would be joining his teammates in Baltimore today for the championship parade. Lewis, the Super Bowl MVP who was linked to a double-killing last year, was shut out of the traditional endorsements after his team beat the New York Giants on Sunday. Instead, it was Ravens quarterback Trent Dilfer who shouted, "I'm going to Disney World!"

Tough times continue at the Campbell Soup Co., which Friday reported lower revenue from soup in the quarter ended Jan. 31 despite steep discounting designed to keep pace with competitors and prevent more lost ground to other quick-meal options. For the second time in six months, Campbell, which employs 1,200 at its Camden headquarters, reduced its sales and earnings estimates for its current fiscal year, which ends in July. The company's shares lost nearly 4 percent of their value, closing down $1.36 Friday at $33.58 on the New York Stock Exchange.

No one is better off dead, but Philadelphia-born Adolph Levis might be grateful that his time came when it did. Levis, who died last week, was the inventor of the Slim Jim, that greasy little tube of particle board masquerading as a spiced beef snack. Levis became a success story by doing something you can do only in America - he invented a food. Better yet, he gave it a catchy name that placed it in the pantheon of other great invented foods with no nutritional value: Twinkies, Yo-Yos, Kit-Kats, Ding-Dongs, Goo-Goo Clusters.

The chairman of a House panel looking into health claims by cereal makers said yesterday that manufacturers were "playing reckless games" with the public's health. The chairman, Rep. Ted Weiss (D., N.Y.), said also that the Food and Drug Administration had shirked its responsibility by not requiring manufacturers to get FDA approval before claiming that a product helps prevent, cure or treat disease. The FDA said recently that it had serious concerns about cereals that contain husks of psyllium, which contains soluble fiber.