You probably didn’t even notice, but over the past few years, candy giants quietly removed “milk chocolate” from the packaging of popular treats like Almond Joy, Mr. Goodbar, and Rolo.
These changes were subtle: Mr. Goodbar, once “milk chocolate with peanuts,” now simply states “chocolate candy with peanuts.” Almond Joy transformed into a “coconut and almond chocolate candy bar,” and Rolos, previously “milk chocolate,” are now described as “rich chocolate candy.”
My own curiosity sparked earlier this year after I bit into a chocolate bar that just didn’t taste right. It wasn’t expired; it simply lacked the familiar flavor I remembered. As a climate reporter, I was already aware that global warming was causing droughts in West Africa, sending cocoa prices soaring. I also knew that candy companies had responded by increasing prices and reducing portion sizes.
But I wondered: were they also quietly changing the actual ingredients?
It turns out, the answer is a resounding yes. According to experts, skyrocketing cocoa prices have led to a surge in “reformulations”—the industry’s polite term for altering recipes. With demand peaking during Halloween, many candy makers are substituting costly cocoa butter with cheaper fats. This ingredient swap means their products no longer qualify as “milk chocolate” under U.S. regulations, necessitating the discreet packaging changes.
So, what was once “milk chocolate”—a term strictly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration—is now simply “chocolate candy.” These are just the most obvious instances. Equipped with advanced confectionery techniques, food scientists are diligently crafting subtle recipe adjustments that avoid triggering mandatory label changes, often going unnoticed by everyone except fellow industry insiders and a select group of highly sensitive “super-taster” candy experts.
From a certain perspective, this is a testament to industry ingenuity. As unpredictable weather patterns make certain ingredients scarcer, the food industry is pouring millions into research and development to adapt to these significant agricultural shifts.
Yet, without much fanfare, the tangible effects of our changing climate have already made their way into our favorite sweet treats.
In recent years, cocoa yields in West Africa, the world’s primary growing region, have been severely impacted by prolonged droughts, extreme heat, and erratic rainfall. A rampant mealybug infection has further devastated crops. Adding to these challenges are financial speculation, tariff threats, labor disputes, and other geopolitical factors, all contributing to a perfect storm for cocoa production.
A study released in February by the nonprofit Climate Central highlighted that climate change has subjected most West African cocoa-growing regions to an extra six weeks of extreme heat annually over the past decade, significantly hindering crop productivity.
This perfect storm of disruptions 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—roughly four times its 2022 price, as reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
“When climate change exacerbates existing structural issues and disease, prices inevitably climb,” explains Judy Ganes, a food industry consultant. “Manufacturers then become reluctant to pass on these increased costs to consumers, fearing it will damage sales. Their options are either for consumers to switch to other products, or for them to reformulate.”
While food industry executives readily admit to a general trend of reducing cocoa content to cut costs, they become much more guarded when pressed about specific changes to their own product recipes.
During a February earnings call, Hershey’s CFO, Steve Voskuil, acknowledged considering and testing reformulations across their product line, stating, “in some parts of our portfolio, over time we’ve made some changes.” He insisted, however, that “there’s been no consumer impact whatsoever.”
That same month, Nestlé informed investors of over $500 million in savings achieved through recipe reformulations, coinciding with a presentation on soaring cocoa and coffee prices. When pressed for specifics, a Nestlé spokesperson clarified that candy contributed only a minor portion to these savings, with the majority coming from streamlining “recipe complexity” and “harmonizing recipes” across various brands.
So, how can you spot a change in your favorite candy? I decided to investigate by comparing current labels on Mr. Goodbar, Rolo caramels, and Almond Joy with historical ingredient lists from sources like the crowdsourced Open Food Facts database, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ingredient database, and data meticulously compiled by Richard Hartel, a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who tracks common chocolate bar ingredients for his annual classes.
(My journalistic quest also involved numerous trips to the grocery store, where I confess I spent an embarrassing amount of time scrutinizing the tiny print on Halloween candy variety packs.)
My research revealed that both Rolo and Mr. Goodbar have undergone changes since 2023, while Almond Joy appears to have been reformulated between 2020 and 2022. The Hershey Company, producers of all three candies, chose not to comment on these specific changes. Interestingly, Mr. Goodbar also temporarily lost its “milk chocolate” designation for a few years starting in 2008, before seemingly reverting.
However, simply comparing labels can only reveal so much to an observant candy enthusiast. Food scientists are, after all, specifically trained to modify recipes in ways that go unnoticed by the average consumer.
Michelle Frame, the innovative founder of candy development firm Victus Ars and the pioneer behind flavored Peeps (an accomplishment that earned her a spot in the Candy Hall of Fame), has noticed these subtle shifts even in her personal life.
Recently, Ms. Frame observed changes in her everyday sweets: the milk chocolate coating on a Snickers bar seemed noticeably thinner, and a once-favorite store-bought chocolate chip cookie now contained smaller, lower-quality chips. (A Mars spokesperson claimed Snickers coatings have remained consistent since a minor reduction in 2019.)
According to Ms. Frame, a frequent tactic to cut cocoa expenses involves substituting traditional chocolate coating with a “compound coating,” which uses vegetable fats instead of pricier cocoa butter. While candies like Butterfinger and Baby Ruth have long utilized compound coatings, others, such as Almond Joy, have made this transition more recently.
Reformulating candies that lack a coating presents a greater challenge. However, candy manufacturers are actively exploring realistic cocoa butter alternatives. Dr. Hartel describes this as “a food scientist’s delight” due to the complex task of perfectly replicating cocoa butter’s unique texture and melt-in-your-mouth sensation. This quest for alternatives has also become a significant commercial endeavor.
He noted that one clear giveaway for a substitution is the appearance of the word “chocolatey” on product packaging.
John Satumba, Cargill’s director of global edible oil solutions research and development, confirmed a rising interest in chocolate alternatives among companies that source ingredients from them. Cargill has poured $35 million into a Dutch facility dedicated to producing coatings and fillings with reduced cocoa content, and they’re also constructing a new plant in Ohio specifically for manufacturing chocolate substitutes.
On a global scale, Cargill has invested a total of $70 million in developing “cocoa butter equivalent capabilities.”
Another common strategy involves replacing chocolate with more affordable ingredients such as sugar or chunky additions. Andrew Moriarty, a senior cocoa analyst at Expana (a firm tracking agricultural commodity prices), notes this has reversed a decade-long trend. For years, companies had been reducing added sugars due to consumer demand, but now, sugar content is discreetly increasing once more as a stand-in for cocoa.
Elsewhere, a company might thin an existing milk chocolate coating and cleverly insert a layer of chocolate compound underneath. Cookie manufacturers might opt for smaller chocolate chips, use fewer of them, or even blend “real” chocolate chips with compound ones, as Ms. Frame explains.
While consumers seldom detect these subtle manipulations, those within the industry have a different perspective.
“We’re a tight-knit community,” says Eric Schmoyer, technical innovations director at IRCA Group, a chocolate manufacturer. “Behind the scenes, we’re all talking, asking each other, ‘Can you believe what they’re doing?'”
Although cocoa prices have dipped slightly since their winter peak, analysts forecast that the supply shortage is far from over, exacerbated by a warming planet. Chocolate demand continues to grow, yet increasing production is a slow process. Climate change will likely further strain cocoa crops with hotter temperatures and unpredictable rainfall, and new cultivation efforts are constrained by anti-deforestation regulations, Mr. Moriarty points out.
Dr. Hartel predicts a widening divide in the chocolate market. High-end chocolates will likely maintain their traditional recipes, with consumers paying premium prices. Meanwhile, companies producing more affordable options will increasingly rely on reformulations, smaller packaging, or marketing new, lower-cocoa content products to keep costs down.
This Halloween season offers a clear illustration of the latter strategy. Hershey’s has released an assortment featuring light-green Kit Kats and Cookies ‘n’ Creme Fangs, neither of which contains a trace of actual chocolate.
So, what about that disappointing chocolate bar that started my investigation? I meticulously checked product labels and found no changes over five years. Yet, candy scientists assure me, many other factors could have been altered: the company might have sourced beans from a different region, used lower-quality beans, or even switched manufacturers.
For years, alarming headlines have warned us about the potential transformations of our food system due to a warming world—predictions of less nutritious key crops, severe shortages, and widespread hunger. However, equally significant are the subtle changes already present on our plates, changes that prove both feasible and lucrative for companies to conceal.
The future of our favorite sweets might just taste like my disappointing chocolate bar: subtly inferior in a way that’s hard to pinpoint, whether due to different beans, reduced cocoa butter, or increased sugar content.
Then again, maybe it was just stale. One can always hope!