Grandson of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup inventor slams Hershey Companyaccused the candy company of damaging Reese’s brand by using cheaper ingredients in many of its products.
hershey acknowledged some formula changes but said Wednesday it was working to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices also lead to hershey In recent years, other manufacturers have tried to use less chocolate.
Brad Reese, 70, said in a Feb. 14 letter to Hershey’s brand managers that he was concerned about multiple Reese’s productsthe company replaced milk chocolate with a compound coating and peanut butter with peanut butter.
“How does The Hershey Company continue to position Reese’s flagship brand as a symbol of trust, quality and leadership while quietly replacing the ingredients that originally built Reese’s trust (milk chocolate + peanut butter)?” Reese wrote in the letter, which was posted on his personal page LinkedIn contour.
He is the grandson of HB Reese, who worked at Hershey for two years before founding his own candy company in 1919. HB Reese invented the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in 1928; His six sons eventually sold the company to the Hershey Company in 1963.
Hershey’s said Wednesday that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made as usual, with milk chocolate and peanut butter, which the company makes in-house with roasted peanuts and a few other ingredients, including sugar and salt. But some of Reese’s ingredients are different, Hershey said.
“As we continue to grow and expand Reese’s product lines, we have made adjustments to our product recipes that allow us to create new shapes, sizes and innovations that Reese’s fans love and demand, while always protecting the essence of Reese’s that is unique and special: the perfect marriage of chocolate and peanut butter,” the company said.
Brad Reese said he thinks Hershey went too far. He said he recently threw away a bag of Reese’s Mini Hearts, a new product for Reese’s Mini Hearts. Valentine’s Day. The packaging notes that the heart-shaped candies are made with “chocolate candies and peanut butter cream,” rather than milk chocolate and peanut butter.
“It’s not edible,” Reese said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You have to understand. I used to eat Reese’s products every day. It was very devastating for me.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has strict ingredient and labeling requirements for chocolate. To be considered milk chocolate, the product must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor, which is a paste made from ground cocoa beans and contains no alcohol. Products must also contain at least 12% milk solids and 3.39% milk fat.
Companies can get around these rules by using other wording on their packaging. For example, Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar’s wrapper says “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”
Reese said Hershey’s has changed the recipes of several Reese’s products in recent years. He said Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated in milk chocolate, but no longer. When Hershey’s introduced White Reese’s in the early 2000s, they were made with white chocolate. Now they are made with white cream, he said.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland are also different from the U.S. version, Reese said. Packaging advertised on the website of British online supermarket Ocado on Wednesday described the candy as “milk chocolate flavored coating and peanut butter cream”.
Hershey disputes this. The company said its Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in the EU and UK use the same recipe as the US version. Hershey said the labeling is different because both the European Union and the United Kingdom require milk chocolate products to contain higher proportions of cocoa, milk solids and butterfat.
In a conference call with investors last year, Hershey Chief Financial Officer Steven Voskuhl said the company had made some changes to its formula. Voskull wouldn’t reveal which products, but said Hershey takes great care to maintain the “flavor profile and distinctiveness of our iconic brands.”
“I would say that of all the changes we’ve made to date, there has been no impact on consumers. As you can imagine, even the smallest brands in the portfolio, if we were to make changes, there would be extensive consumer testing,” he said.
But Brad Reese said he’s often told that Reese’s products don’t taste as good as they used to. He said the Pennsylvania-based Hershey Co. should remember a quote from its founder Milton Hershey: “Give them quality, and that’s the best advertising.”
“I absolutely believe in innovation, but I prefer quality innovation,” Reese said.