Since we wrote about Hershey’s reformulating some of their products into “mockolate” that can’t legally be called “milk chocolate,” the story has been getting some play in the media, prompting Hershey to respond to the controversy. So, why did they reformulate their candy? Because you like fake chocolate better!

From the Patriot-News:

“Consumers love this, and people prefer the change,” [Hershey’s spokesperson] said.

Cybele, who runs the Candy Blog, and has been working to make consumers aware of the changes in Hershey’s products, has been keeping a close eye on what she calls misleading statements on Hershey’s website. For example:

I don’t know if they can get away with calling the product Hershey’s Miniature chocolate bars when I found that 41% of my package were not chocolate bars at all.

Milk Duds haven’t been chocolate for years, but the description is still there:

Bite-size chocolate-covered caramels, MILK DUDS candy is a perfect snack for a night at the movies or anytime!

Slightly more disturbing was Cybele’s attempt to find out what is actually inside the Hershey’s Krackle Bar. They flat out wouldn’t tell her.

I called this morning and gave the representative my case number and she read back my request: What are the ingredients in the Krackel bar. The ingredients list on the Miniatures bag lists them all together and I want to know just what’s in that bar.

She asked me why I want to know.

I stammered that I wanted to know what I’m eating.

She asked if it was an allergy issue.

I replied that I wanted to know what was in that bar. If I ate only that bar, what would I be eating? (The package does say “something for everyone” so Hershey’s understands that sometimes people just pick through and eat only one variety.)

She said she did not have that information. It doesn’t exist in her records. If she wanted she could escalate me to a supervisor, but they had only the same info that she does.

Surely someone must know? Ultimately, the company decided that the recipe for the bars could not be shared.

The recipe for this bar is proprietary and cannot be shared.

Do they really think we’re going to try to make them at home?

Hershey changes recipes for some candies [Pennlive]
Hershey’s Website Inaccuracies [Candy Blog]

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