Listen to this article
Average 5 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
The grandson of the founder of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups has lashed out at The Hershey Co., accusing the candy company of hurting the Reese’s brand by switching to cheaper ingredients in many products.
Hershey acknowledges the recipe changes but said Wednesday it was trying to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices have also led Hershey and other manufacturers to try using less chocolate in recent years.
Brad Reese, 70, wrote in a Feb. 14 to a Hershey company manager that in many of Reese’s products, the company replaced milk chocolate with peanut butter compounds.
“How does Hershey Co. continue to position Reese as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly changing the ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built Reese’s trust in the first place?” Reese wrote in a letter, which he posted on his LinkedIn profile.
He is the grandson of HB Reese, who spent two years in Hershey before founding his own candy company in 1919. HB Reese invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928; his six sons eventually sold his company to Hershey in 1963.
Hershey said Wednesday that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they’ve always been, with milk chocolate and peanut butter that the company makes from roasted peanuts and a few other ingredients, including sugar and salt. But Reese’s other ingredients vary, Hershey said.
“As we’ve grown and expanded the Reese’s product line, we’re making product recipe changes that allow us to create new shapes, sizes and new ingredients that Reese’s fans have come to love and request, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter,” the company said.
Skimpflation is when companies exchange ingredients for cheaper ones, without lowering the price or warning customers. One consumer advocate calls it a ‘tricky way to give you less money for your money’ that most people don’t realize.
‘It was edible’
Brad Reese said he thinks Hershey went too far. She said she recently dropped off Reese’s Mini Hearts bag which is a new product released for Valentine’s Day. The packaging notes that the heart-shaped candies are made from “candy chocolate and peanut butter creme,” not milk chocolate and peanut butter.
“It was inedible,” Reese told The Associated Press in an interview. “You have to understand. I used to eat Reese’s product every day. This hurts me so much.”
The US Food and Drug Administration has strict ingredient and labeling requirements for chocolate. To be considered milk chocolate, products must contain at least 10 percent chocolate alcohol, which is a paste made from ground cocoa beans and is alcohol-free. The products must also contain at least 12 percent milk solids and 3.39 percent milk fat.
Companies can get around those rules by using other names on their packaging. Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar, for example, contains the words “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”
Reese said Hershey has changed the recipes for many of Reese’s products in recent years. Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be covered in milk chocolate, he said, but now they aren’t. In the early 2000s, when Hershey released White Reese’s, it was made with white chocolate. Now they are made of white creme, he said.
Reese said Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland are also different from the US version. On Wednesday, a package advertised on the website of British online supermarket Ocado described the candy as “chocolate flavored milk and peanut butter creme.”
Hershey denied that. The company said the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups it sells in the European Union and the United Kingdom use the same recipe as the US version. The labels differ because the EU and the UK both require milk chocolate products to have a high percentage of cocoa, milk solids and milk fat, Hershey said.
At an investor conference last year, Hershey’s chief financial officer, Steven Voskuil, said the company had made some changes to its formulas. Voskuil did not say which products but said Hershey was very careful to maintain the “taste profile and uniqueness of our iconic products.”
“I would say that in all the changes we have made so far, there has never been a consumer impact. As you can imagine, even for a very small product in the portfolio, if we are going to make a change, there is an extensive consumer review,” he said.
But Brad Reese said he often has people tell him that Reese’s products don’t taste as good as they used to. He said Pennsylvania-based Hershey should remember a quote from its founder, Milton Hershey: “Give them quality, that’s the best advertising.”
“I’m a firm believer in innovation, but my passion is innovation,” said Reese.
