Kraft Heinz: “Virtually No One Noticed” Mac & Cheese Recipe Change

Image courtesy of Mike Mozart

After announcing 11 months ago that it would remove artificial colors and preservatives from its Macaroni & Cheese product, Kraft Heinz says it went ahead and did that… and basically no one remarked on the change.

We’ve all been living with the delusion that Kraft’s mac and cheese has remained the same, when really, Kraft Heinz says, the recipe was changed in December. The company is busy crowing about how oblivious with how we’ve been with a new ad campaign talking about its coup, calling the unnoticed switch “the world’s largest taste test.”

The new “It’s changed. But it hasn’t” campaign launches today, Kraft says, and Craig Kilborn is involved somehow:

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“The new recipe’s taste, texture and appearance are so similar that virtually no one noticed,” Kraft Heinz says in a press release, noting that it’s sold 50 million boxes of the new version of mac and cheese since the switch.

The reformulated recipe uses things like paprika and turmeric to create that quintessential “mac & cheese” orange we all know, instead of artificial dyes that provided that hue before. Aparently, we didn’t know the product well enough to notice anything was amiss.

“We’d invite Americans to try our new recipe, but they most likely already have,” added Greg Guidotti, vice president of meals at Kraft Heinz. Oh, snap.

We’re unsure of what response the company is looking for with its new campaign, but we think it’s along the lines of “Thumbs up, good job, you sure did fool me, by golly!”

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