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One of the big things the website, The Consumerist, has been documenting over the last year is what they call the ‘grocery shrink-ray’ effect: food companies raising prices without actually raising them by shrinking the amount or size of the item while leaving the packaging looking the same. They’re doing this to fool customers into not realizing there’s been a change. Another aspect of the same trend is this, Hershey is replacing milk chocolate with cheaper ingredients.
The Candy Blog noticed that Hershey’s “Kissables” have been reformulated, and can no longer be legally labeled “milk chocolate” because of FDA regulations. The new package looks the same, except for the ingredients and the label which now says “Chocolate Candy” instead “Candy Coated Milk Chocolate.”
Not that this sort of thing hasn’t been going for years, but as you read the update, this is Hershey’s astonishing response: we like fake chocolate better! Does that mean real chocolate will become extinct because the fake stuff “tastes better” or because they can charge real chocolate prices for the fake stuff? Cripes!
Remember the days when processed food used real chemicals and you couldn’t tell by the label (ha, what label?) that what you were eating was killing you? You didn’t care because it tasted so damn good! Like the McD’s burger that has lasted over a decade and looks almost as if it were fresh off the griddle? Ah, good times, good times….
I used to be a choco-holic, but not I guess I am a “lower-cost vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter”-oholic.
Sit down and figure the COST PER POUND of these candies and “Convience Foods” !!! In most cases, it costs MORE THAN STEAK !!! And they tend to have MORE “INGREDIENTS” THAN A CHEMISTRY LAB, AND JUST AS UNPRONOUNCABLE !!!
Try to stick to FRESH FOODS – VEGGIES AND FRUIT, AND ***STAY AWAY FROM PROCESSED FACTORY FOOD*** !!! The Factory is where they MIX IN ALL THE “INGREDIENTS” THAT PUMP UP THEIR BOTTOM LINE, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, DOING YOUR BODY NOT MUCH GOOD !!!
People are surprised that Hershey makes crappy “chocolate?” At best its chocolate wax and that was before the chocolate candy controversy.
I AGREE with with JimR even if he did USE TO MANY ALL CAPS.
As for chocolate and milk chocolate, I thought milk chocolate was the cheap alternative to real chocolate that is made with cocao butter? Does that mean there is a cheap alternative to the cheap alternative? And will there be a cheap alternative to that too?
#5 – YES – JIM’S POINT IS QUITE VALID AND DESERVES THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATION!
#4 – The cheaper alternative is being tested in China where unflavored melamine is available.
@#6: !!! 🙂
That aside, Hershey milk chocolate is simply wrong and they may be right that the substitute tastes better. I know that some people got used to Hershey taste, but isn’t it time to rethink the old (cheap) recipe on which the Hershey empire have been built long ago.
You shouldn’t be eating that crap anyway.
Did it mention whether the “candy coating” is made-in-China Melamine paint?
and it is made in mexico! yum, what could go wrong with products made there…….???????
#10
Idiot, chocolate made south of the border is better, why? Because the level of technification is not that great and sometimes is actually cheaper to use real cocoa than substitutes. You should try the local chocolate manufacturers, it may not be silky smooth but you will taste what real chocolate tastes like.
I would LOVE a taste comparison of the OLDER style Chocolate from MY childhood and NOW..
THEN let the kids compare in a taste test.
THE USA, in all Chocolate, is the LOWEST quality, lowest Quantity, of Chocolate in a CHOCOLATE BAR.
You cant get this CRAP anywhere ELSE.
The way inflation starts. Check out the new soap bar in Dial. Still the same package but a big air space in the middle.
If it comes from Mexico and is cooked, it’s OK. If it comes from a Toronto distribution house after being imported from China, beware. They don’t put that on the source labeling. It just says a product of Canada.
13,
yep..
I remember when a bar of SOAP was hard, and lasted over a month.
NOW they are 1/2 WET/soft, and last 3 weeks MAYBE.
I also remember BULK stores, and being able to buy MOSt goods at 1/2 price, WITHOUT the box/carton/…
I also remember when a loaf of BREAD wasnt 1/2 AIR and when POP/SODA was CHEAP, its 99% water and sugar.
#13, qsabe,
If it comes from a Toronto distribution house after being imported from China, beware. They don’t put that on the source labeling. It just says a product of Canada.
Not true. Even if imported into Canada first, the major country of origin must be noted somewhere on the product.
#12
There was a company here with the brand “gallito” it had some of the most delicious chocolates I ever tasted, then it got bought by Nestlè and now its products taste like sweetened shortening…
And I use to like Hershey’s dark chocolates best, because M&Ms new “dark” crap gave me diarrhea. It didn’t say it was for constipation, anywhere in the package. Their milk chocolate variety is fine. But I think Mars candies really screwed up on the dark chocolate pieces. Now, I can’t trust Hershey’s either. And they were already making candy cheaper by moving out of the country (Mexico!). So they REALLY don’t want to sell chocolate anymore, eh? Maybe they’re counting on a government bailout, too.
What Hershey’s needs not is another Willy Wonka movie to explain all this. And why it’s good for us. Hollywood is such a tool.
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/video/17431929/index.html
Can anyone watch this, it wont load the player, for me..
THIS is the site you want..
http://incredibleshrinkinggroceries.com/
WHo remembers when CEREAL was cheap??
Who remembers when COFFEE was Cheap.
Average cost of 1 cup of coffee is $0.10-0.50..WITHOUT the milk.
1lb of coffee, SHOULD make about 75-100 cups of GOOD coffee..
THINK about that…REALLy think about how much YOU COULD save from Starbucks.
Maybe somebody will market the real thing.
I know this crap is why I’m finding it easier and easier to just say no.
They say it tastes better and I just wonder why I don’t want it any more.
I wish our FOOD was FOOD..
It wouldnt cause as many problems.
It’s fake. Ah, but is it still Kosher? I can’t make out any such “approval” symbol (K or U) on these bags. If it’s not good enough for the Jews, why should I eat it?
BTW, Hershey isn’t the first to pull a fast one. Back a few years ago, when I was buying M&Ms Peanuts candy regularly. I noticed that the larger the bag was, the larger the peanuts were. So I figured they graded them by size for each bag size. So when you though you were getting a better deal, buying the larger bag because the price per pound was less, you weren’t. Because the larger peanuts merely took the place of the chocolate. The chocolate coating was thinner. So then I wondered how they were pulling this off with the plain variety sizes. And by reading the new nutritional labels on each bag, I discovered that M&Ms were adjusting the butter fat per bag size. More fat for the larger size. But a few months later, they froze the fat level at some median level. As far as I know, they’re still grading the peanuts. Compare a pocket pack’s cleaned peanuts, with a two pound bag’s cleaned peanuts, and see if they’re still doing this. Then… get a life again, right?