Screw you, Hershey’s.
That’s what chocolate-lovers—well, this chocolate-lover, at any rate—are/is saying to Hershey’s, the company that just ruined Milk Duds by gutting them of even the small and pathetic chocolate content they once clung to.
TodayShow.com reports on the changing face of low-end American “chocolate”:
Products such as Whatchamacallit, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar and Krackel no longer have milk chocolate coatings, and Hershey’s Kissables are now labeled ‘chocolate candy’ instead of ‘milk chocolate.’
What’s going on here? On Friday, TODAY consumer correspondent Janice Lieberman reported that Hershey’s has switched to less expensive ingredients in several of its products. In particular, cocoa butter—the ingredient famous for giving chocolate its creamy, melt-in-your-mouth texture—has been replaced with vegetable oil.
Here’s the good news: The FDA, defender of the consumers, weighed in last year in defense of industry groups trying to replace cocoa butter with vegetable oil in chocolate products.
“Chocolate lovers need not be alarmed about the future of their favorite product,” the FDA said in a consumer update. “Cacao fat, as one of the signature characteristics of the product, will remain a principal component of standardized chocolate.”
Thanks, the FDA, defender of consumers. Thanks also for your ambiguous statements about possibly toxic baby bottles and approving a potentially deadly new antibiotic despite fraud concerns.
Great info just in time for Halloween. Now I know something else to avoid, just look for the brown label.
They’re just following Europe, where chocolate manufacturers have been pushing (and succeeding) for the right to substitute cocoa butter with vegetable oil and still call the item “chocolate”.
Ah yes, Corporate American busy at work making more junk, less quality, and then trying to sell to us how wonderful it is!
It’s all about making the $$$$! The dollar is the God of the Corporations!
Hmmm… I wonder if some of the FDA people get bonuses for doing their part in convincing the public that the junk foods are safe.
So then, I was thinking that with the way things are today I would like to start growing my own veggies. Now I have figure out how to make chocolate too? grrrrrrrrrrr…..
LOL