Grandson of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup inventor accuses Hershey of changing recipe
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The grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups has hit out at The Hershey Company, accusing the candy company of hurting the Reese’s brand by using cheaper ingredients in several products.
Hershey has acknowledged some recipe changes, but said Wednesday it is trying to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices have prompted Hershey and other manufacturers to experiment with using less chocolate in recent years.
Brad Reese, 70, said letter of 14 february Hershey’s corporate brand manager explained that for many Reese’s products, the company replaced milk chocolate with mixed coatings and peanut butter with peanut cream.
“How does the Hershey Company continue to position Reese’s as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the same ingredients (milk chocolate + peanut butter) that built Reese’s trust in the first place?” Reese wrote in the letter, which he posted on his LinkedIn profile.
He is the grandson of HB Reese, who spent two years at Hershey before forming his own candy company in 1919. HB Reese invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928; His six sons eventually sold their company to Hershey in 1963.
Hershey said Wednesday that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have, with milk chocolate and peanut butter that the company makes from roasted peanuts and a few other ingredients, including sugar and salt. But some Reese’s ingredients vary, Hershey said.
The company said, “As we grow and expand the Reese’s product line, we make product recipe adjustments that allow us to create new shapes, sizes and novelties that Reese’s fans love and demand, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter.”
Skimping occurs when companies sell materials in lieu of cheaper materials without reducing the price or alerting customers. One consumer advocate has called it ‘a sneaky way of giving you less for your money’ that most people don’t pay attention to.
‘It was not edible’
Brad Reese said he thinks Hershey has gone too far. She said she recently threw away a bag of Reese’s Mini Hearts, a new product released for Valentine’s Day. The packaging notes that the heart-shaped candies are made with “chocolate candy and peanut butter cream,” not milk chocolate and peanut butter.
“It was not edible,” Reese told The Associated Press in an interview. “You have to understand. I used to eat Reese’s products every day. This is very devastating to me.”
The U.S. 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 liquor, which is a paste made from ground cocoa beans and contains no alcohol. The products must also contain at least 12 percent milk solids and 3.39 percent milk fat.
Companies can avoid those rules by using other words on their packaging. For example, the wrappers of Hershey’s Mister Goodbars include the words “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate”.
Reese said Hershey has changed the recipes of many Reese’s products in recent years. Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated with milk chocolate, but that is no longer the case, he said. In the early 2000s, when Hershey released White Reese’s, they were made with white chocolate. Now they are made of white cream, he said.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland also differ from the American versions, Reese said. On Wednesday, the candy was described in a package advertised on the website of British online supermarket Ocado as having a “milk chocolate-flavored coating and peanut butter cream.”
Hershey disputed this. 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 American version. The labels differ because both the EU and the UK require milk chocolate products to have a higher percentage of cocoa, milk solids and milk fat, Hershey said.
In a conference call with investors last year, Hershey Chief Financial Officer Steven Voskuil said the company had made some changes to its formula. Voskuil did not specify which products, but said Hershey was very careful to maintain “the flavor profile and uniqueness of our iconic brands.”
“I would say that none of the changes we’ve made so far have had any impact on the consumer. As you can imagine, even on the smallest brand in the portfolio, if we have to make any changes, there has to be extensive consumer testing,” he said.
But Brad Reese said people often tell him that Reese’s products don’t taste as good as they used to. He said Pennsylvania-based Hershey should keep in mind a famous quote from its founder Milton Hershey: “Give them quality, that’s the best advertising.”
“I absolutely believe in innovation, but my priority is innovation with quality,” Reese said.
