The Sweet Deception: Why Your Favorite Candy Bar Might No Longer Be ‘Milk Chocolate’

You probably didn’t even notice, but over the past few years, the labels on candies like Almond Joy, Mr. Goodbar, and Rolo have quietly changed, removing the familiar “milk chocolate” description.
These subtle shifts were easy to miss: Mr. Goodbar went from “milk chocolate with peanuts” to “chocolate candy with peanuts.” Almond Joy is now a “coconut and almond chocolate candy bar,” and Rolos are simply “rich chocolate candy.”
I first noticed something was off earlier this year after biting into a chocolate bar that just didn’t taste right. It wasn’t spoiled, just… different. As a climate reporter, I was already aware of global warming causing droughts in West Africa, which has sent cocoa prices soaring, leading candy makers to increase prices and shrink serving sizes.
But could they also be secretly altering the very ingredients of our cherished treats?
The answer, it turns out, is a resounding yes. Experts confirm that soaring cocoa prices have sparked a wave of “reformulations” – the industry’s term for recipe adjustments. With Halloween demand on the rise, many companies are swapping out pricey cocoa butter for alternative fats. This change means their products no longer qualify as “milk chocolate” under U.S. regulations, leading to those quiet label changes.
So, “milk chocolate” (a term carefully defined by the Food and Drug Administration) subtly transforms into “chocolate candy.” And these are just the changes that require a label update. Behind the scenes, candy scientists use advanced techniques to reformulate recipes in ways that often go unnoticed by everyone except, perhaps, a handful of highly sensitive “super-tasters” within the industry.
From one perspective, this is a remarkable adaptation. As unpredictable weather patterns make certain ingredients scarcer, the food industry is pouring millions into research and development to keep up with drastic changes in agriculture.
Yet, with hardly a ripple, the impact of our changing climate has already found its way into our beloved candy.
The root of the problem lies in West Africa, the world’s main cocoa-growing region. Recent years have seen prolonged droughts, intense heat, and erratic rainfall, severely hindering cocoa yields. A fast-spreading mealybug infection has only worsened the situation. On top of that, financial speculation, potential tariffs, labor disputes, and other geopolitical issues have all contributed to the crisis.
A study released in February by Climate Central, a nonprofit research group, revealed a grim reality: climate change has inflicted an average of six extra weeks of extreme heat annually across most West African cocoa-growing regions over the past decade, dramatically stifling crop production.
This turmoil in the cocoa market has sent prices skyrocketing. By the end of last year, cocoa reached an astounding peak of over $10,000 per ton, quadrupling its 2022 price, as reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Judy Ganes, a seasoned food industry consultant, explains the dilemma: “When climate change collides with existing structural issues and disease, prices surge. Manufacturers are reluctant to pass these increases directly to consumers, fearing a drop in sales. Their options are either to let consumers switch to other products or to reformulate.”
While food industry executives readily admit to reducing cocoa content to cut costs, they become much more guarded when asked specifically about changes to their own product recipes.
During a February earnings call, Steve Voskuil, Hershey’s Chief Financial Officer, acknowledged that “it’s a place we look at, we test, and in some parts of our portfolio, over time we’ve made some changes,” asserting that “there’s been no consumer impact whatsoever.”
That same month, Nestlé informed investors they had saved over $500 million through recipe reformulations, coinciding with a presentation highlighting high cocoa and coffee prices. When pressed for specifics, a Nestlé spokesperson claimed that candy constituted only a small fraction of these savings, with most coming from streamlining “recipe complexity” and “harmonizing recipes” across their various brands.
So, how can an ordinary consumer detect these subtle alterations? My investigation involved comparing current labels of Mr. Goodbar, Rolo caramels, and Almond Joy with historical ingredient lists from sources like the Open Food Facts database, a U.S. Department of Agriculture database, and annual data collected by Richard Hartel, a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for his classes.
(Full disclosure: This also required numerous trips to the grocery store, where I spent an embarrassingly long time scrutinizing the tiny print on Halloween candy bags.)
My research indicates that Rolo and Mr. Goodbar have undergone changes since 2023, while Almond Joy appears to have been altered between 2020 and 2022. The Hershey Company, manufacturer of all three, chose not to comment. Interestingly, Mr. Goodbar had a brief period, starting in 2008, where it wasn’t technically milk chocolate before supposedly reverting.
However, even the most diligent candy enthusiast can only learn so much from labels. Food scientists admit they are specifically trained to modify recipes without alerting consumers.
Michelle Frame, founder of the candy development firm Victus Ars and an inductee into the Candy Hall of Fame for her pioneering work on flavored Peeps, offers an insider’s perspective.
Even Ms. Frame has observed these changes in her everyday life. She noted that the milk chocolate coating on a Snickers bar she recently purchased appeared thinner. She also stopped buying a particular brand of chocolate chip cookies after discovering the large chocolate chips were replaced with a cheaper alternative. (A Mars spokesperson stated that Snickers coatings haven’t changed since a minor reduction in 2019.)
According to Ms. Frame, a frequent strategy for cutting cocoa costs involves substituting traditional chocolate coating with “compound coating,” which uses vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter. While some bars, like Butterfinger and Baby Ruth, have long used compound coatings, others, such as Almond Joy, have made this switch more recently.
Reformulating candies without coatings presents a greater challenge. Manufacturers are now exploring highly realistic cocoa butter substitutes. Dr. Hartel describes this as “a food scientist’s delight,” given the intricate task of perfectly mimicking cocoa butter’s unique texture and melt-in-your-mouth feel. This innovation also represents a significant business opportunity.
He added that one of the most obvious clues to a substitution is the appearance of the word “chocolatey” on the packaging.
Cargill, a major ingredient supplier, has seen a surge in demand for chocolate alternatives, according to John Satumba, their director of global edible oil solutions R&D. Cargill has invested $35 million in a Dutch facility focused on coatings and fillings with reduced cocoa and is constructing an Ohio plant to produce chocolate substitutes.
Globally, Cargill has poured $70 million into developing “cocoa butter equivalent capabilities.”
Another common tactic involves substituting cocoa with more readily available ingredients like sugar or other chunky add-ins. Andrew Moriarty, a senior cocoa analyst at Expana, notes that this has reversed a decade-long trend of reducing added sugars in response to consumer demand. Now, sugar content is discreetly climbing again as a replacement for cocoa.
Alternatively, a manufacturer might thin out a milk chocolate coating and hide a layer of chocolate compound underneath. Cookie producers might make chocolate chips smaller, use fewer, or blend “real” chocolate chips with compound ones, Ms. Frame explains.
While most consumers remain oblivious to these culinary sleights of hand, industry insiders are keenly aware.
“We all know each other and we run around behind the scenes and we’re like, ‘Can you believe this stuff?'” remarked Eric Schmoyer, technical innovations director at IRCA Group, a prominent chocolate manufacturer.
Though cocoa prices have slightly receded from last winter’s peak, analysts foresee a persistent supply shortage as our planet continues to warm. Chocolate demand is unwavering, but increasing production is a slow process. Climate change is set to further strain crops with hotter temperatures and unpredictable rainfall, while new cultivation faces restrictions due to anti-deforestation regulations, Mr. Moriarty pointed out.
Dr. Hartel predicts that in the long term, these pressures will cause the chocolate market to diverge significantly. Premium chocolates will likely retain their original ingredients, with consumers simply paying higher prices. Meanwhile, companies producing more affordable chocolates will continue innovating to keep them accessible, whether through ingredient reformulations, smaller packaging, or introducing new products with reduced cocoa content.
This Halloween season, we can already see this strategy in action: A Hershey’s assortment features light-green Kit Kats and Cookies ‘n’ Creme Fangs – neither of which contains any actual chocolate.
So, what about that disappointing chocolate bar that started my investigation? I meticulously compared its product labels over five years and found no changes. Yet, as candy scientists explained, many other factors could have been altered: the company might have sourced cocoa beans from a new region, used lower-quality beans, or even switched manufacturers.
In recent years, alarming headlines have warned about climate change’s potential to transform our food system, from making essential crops less nutritious to triggering widespread shortages and hunger. But beyond these dramatic threats, subtle changes are already present on our plates, and the ability to mask them has become a lucrative endeavor.
Perhaps the future of our food tastes like that chocolate bar I had: subtly inferior, whether due to different beans, less cocoa butter, or an increased sugar content.
Then again, maybe it was just stale.
Mira Rojanasakul contributed reporting.