NY -- Standard&Poor's CreditWire 2/15/96 -- Standard&Poor's lowers its rating on the $50 million remarketed ESOP notes due 2007 issued by the Employee Stock Ownership Portion of the Profit Sharing&Savings Plan for Darden Restaurants Inc. (formerly known as the Profit Sharing&Savings Plan of General Mills Restaurants Inc.) to triple-`B'-plus/`A-2' from single-`A'-plus/`A-1'. At the same time, Standard&Poor's removes the rating from CreditWatch, where it was placed Dec. 21, 1995. The downgrade reflects the substitution of Darden Restaurants for General Mills as the guarantor of these ESOP notes effective Feb. 14, 1996. Darden Restaurants' senior debt rating is triple-`B'-plus and commercial paper rating is `A-2'. Darden Restaurants was spun off from General
