The Hershey's® Wrapper Scandal:
Inside the chocolate giant's betrayal
of the American people

Instead of wrapping its chocolate bars in paper, the way it's been
done for almost 70 years, Hersheys® is now packaging its milk
chocolate in plastic: Exxon Mobil Chemical's Bicor® 75
CSR-2/ink/adhesive/Metallyte.

The result is packaging that is very hard to open, a poor tasting
chocolate, and the loss of a fine American tradition.


Get the complete story at:

http://www.notwriting.com/commentary.htm


Or, contact Hershey's® Public Relations department and tell them you
want the old wrappers back! You can email them at:




Don't let them get away with this! Make your voice heard today!

Thank you,

Chris Orcutt
NotWriting.com: Stuff one writer does when he should be writing
www.notwriting.com

On 12 Nov 2003 15:36:17 -0800
(Chris) wrote:

> The Hershey's=AE Wrapper Scandal:
> Inside the chocolate giant's betrayal
> of the American people
>=20
> Instead of wrapping its chocolate bars in paper, the way it's been
> done for almost 70 years, Hersheys=AE is now packaging its milk
> chocolate in plastic: Exxon Mobil Chemical's Bicor=AE 75
> CSR-2/ink/adhesive/Metallyte.
>=20
> The result is packaging that is very hard to open, a poor tasting
> chocolate, and the loss of a fine American tradition.


I don't think any particular form of wrapping is going to solve the
problem of hersheys tasting bad . . .=20

At any rate, the 'cookies and cream' bars have been in plastic for
ages, and the last time i bought chocolate bars, about six months ago,
they were in paper. they were poor tasting, but that's because it's
cheap chocolate.=20

- Eric

Chris wrote:

> The Hershey's® Wrapper Scandal:
> Inside the chocolate giant's betrayal
> of the American people
>
> Instead of wrapping its chocolate bars in paper, the way it's been
> done for almost 70 years, Hersheys® is now packaging its milk
> chocolate in plastic: Exxon Mobil Chemical's Bicor® 75
> CSR-2/ink/adhesive/Metallyte.
>
> The result is packaging that is very hard to open, a poor tasting
> chocolate, and the loss of a fine American tradition.
>
>
> Get the complete story at:
>
> http://www.notwriting.com/commentary.htm
>
>
> Or, contact Hershey's® Public Relations department and tell them you
> want the old wrappers back! You can email them at:
>
>
>
>
> Don't let them get away with this! Make your voice heard today!
>
> Thank you,
>
> Chris Orcutt
> NotWriting.com: Stuff one writer does when he should be writing
> www.notwriting.com

Wouldn't it be much easier to buy real chocolate instead of milk chocolate?

--
Alan

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and
avoid the people, you might better stay home."
--James Michener

at Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:04:41 GMT in
>,
(alzelt) wrote :

>
>
>Chris wrote:
>>...
>> Instead of wrapping its chocolate bars in paper, the way it's been
>> done for almost 70 years, Hersheys® is now packaging its milk
>> chocolate in plastic: Exxon Mobil Chemical's Bicor® 75
>> CSR-2/ink/adhesive/Metallyte.
>> Don't let them get away with this! Make your voice heard today!
>...
>Wouldn't it be much easier to buy real chocolate instead of milk
>chocolate?

Milk chocolate *is* real chocolate. There's nothing inherently wrong with
the stuff, and some kinds (e.g. Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate, Michel Cluizel
Chocolat Grand Lait Cacao Pur Ile de Java 50%) are really good, too.

However, I agree that it's somewhat immaterial to quibble over any quality
loss in Hershey's - their milk chocolate is really bad to begin with.

More frustrating to me is the introduction of plastic wrappings on a lot of
organic chocolates, especially those from Europe. They advertise boldly on
the label that the wrapping has no aluminum. Now, how does it *improve*
things to go from inert aluminum (which may have tenuous connections to
Alzheimers) to off-gassing plastic (which has known connections to cancers
and other toxic diseases), especially when plastic makes it taste worse
*and* less healthy? If they want to do it right, then they should wrap it
in sealed wax paper or stainless steel foil. However, if they want to cut
costs, why not at least be sufficiently candid as to admit it, or at least
not so disingenuous as to conceal what they've done behind a "no aluminum"
banner?

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

In article >,
(Alex Rast) wrote:

> at Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:04:41 GMT in
> >,
> (alzelt) wrote :
>
> >
> >
> >Chris wrote:
> >>...
> >> Instead of wrapping its chocolate bars in paper, the way it's been
> >> done for almost 70 years, Hersheys® is now packaging its milk
> >> chocolate in plastic: Exxon Mobil Chemical's Bicor® 75
> >> CSR-2/ink/adhesive/Metallyte.
> >> Don't let them get away with this! Make your voice heard today!
> >...
> >Wouldn't it be much easier to buy real chocolate instead of milk
> >chocolate?
>
> Milk chocolate *is* real chocolate. There's nothing inherently wrong with
> the stuff, and some kinds (e.g. Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate, Michel Cluizel
> Chocolat Grand Lait Cacao Pur Ile de Java 50%) are really good, too.
>
> However, I agree that it's somewhat immaterial to quibble over any quality
> loss in Hershey's - their milk chocolate is really bad to begin with.
>
> More frustrating to me is the introduction of plastic wrappings on a lot of
> organic chocolates, especially those from Europe. They advertise boldly on
> the label that the wrapping has no aluminum. Now, how does it *improve*
> things to go from inert aluminum (which may have tenuous connections to
> Alzheimers)

Not even tenuous; non-existent.

>to off-gassing plastic (which has known connections to cancers
> and other toxic diseases), especially when plastic makes it taste worse
> *and* less healthy?

Not all plastics outgas; vinyls do, but generally they are not used for
food packaging. The ones that do not, probably do not alter the taste --
except to prevent oxidation and absorption of odors from the
environment. If you like what those do to the taste, plastic will be a
problem.

>If they want to do it right, then they should wrap it
> in sealed wax paper or stainless steel foil.

Neither of which will prevent outside contaminants anywhere near as well
as *proper* plastic packaging.

>However, if they want to cut
> costs, why not at least be sufficiently candid as to admit it, or at least
> not so disingenuous as to conceal what they've done behind a "no aluminum"
> banner?

The "no aluminum" silliness, I think, is to counter the old, entirely
debunked, story that's been running aroung Usenet since Noah first
forwarded it.

Plastic -- properly chosen -- is probably the best packaging possible.

Isaac

NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:34:14 -0000,
(Alex Rast) wrote:

>However, I agree that it's somewhat immaterial to quibble over any quality
>loss in Hershey's - their milk chocolate is really bad to begin with.

Have to agree there. Its the process they use because Hershey
insisted on using fresh milk (which was in abundance in Pennsylvania
when he first got started) for his milk chocolates rather than import
powdered milk from Europe. Cheaper but because of the high
temperatures he needed to use to mix the water based milk with the oil
based cocoa, the milk almost sours.

That's why Hershey's milk chocolate tastes sour to those who are used
to European milk chocolates.

--
Davida Chazan (The Chocolate Lady)
<davida @ jdc . org . il>
~*~*~*~*~*~
"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of
chocolate."
--Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Links to my published poetry - http://davidachazan.homestead.com/
~*~*~*~*~*~

Far as I can tell, someone wrote:
>Hersheys® is now packaging its milk
>chocolate in plastic:

So now the wrapper and the candy taste exactly alike!

(Chris) writes:
> The result is packaging that is very hard to open, a poor tasting
> chocolate, and the loss of a fine American tradition.

I'm not sure that plastic will have much effect on the taste of
Hershey's---it's just not all that good a chocolate...

But it does remind me of when they moved Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
(hey, we all eat junk food on occasion...) to plastic wrappers---to
me, the quality went downhill, because I discovered that I actually
liked Reese's better when it was slightly stale (the peanut butter
would harden up), and the new packaging kept it entirely too fresh.

--
Richard W Kaszeta

http://www.kaszeta.org/rich

Richard Kaszeta > writes:

>From: Richard Kaszeta >
>Newsgroups: rec.food.baking
>Subject: The Hershey's Wrapper Scandal
>Date: 13 Nov 2003 10:46:00 -0600
>
>But it does remind me of when they moved Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
>(hey, we all eat junk food on occasion...) to plastic wrappers---to
>me, the quality went downhill, because I discovered that I actually
>liked Reese's better when it was slightly stale (the peanut butter
>would harden up), and the new packaging kept it entirely too fresh.


Hey, Diogenes... over here... quick... an honest man!



For many years, one of the more popular items offered for sale at
intermission at a local theatre is individually wrapped 3.5cm
squares of Ghirardelli chocolate of both dark bittersweet and milk
chocolate varieties.

See: http://www.ghirardelli.com/products.cfm?cat_id=1

For years these have come wrapped in foil which is easy to remove
and virtually silent when opened by those who bring a couple of
pieces back to nibble at their seats during the second act. Alas,
no more -- last year Ghirardelli switched to sealed plastic
packaging which has the strength of the Mylar that NASA used for
its first communications satelite.

In theory, these small envelopes should open silently along a seam.
But, as it is difficult to figure out how this seam is folded -- and
virtually impossible in the dark -- one hears members of the audience
trying to rip these open with their fingernails, teeth, housekeys, or
any other implement of destruction they may have on their persons.

Ah, the play may open to popular acclaim, but the chocolates do not.

Cheers,
The Old Bear

On 13 Nov 2003 10:46:00 -0600
Richard Kaszeta > wrote:

> (Chris) writes:
> > The result is packaging that is very hard to open, a poor tasting
> > chocolate, and the loss of a fine American tradition.
>
> I'm not sure that plastic will have much effect on the taste of
> Hershey's---it's just not all that good a chocolate...
>
> But it does remind me of when they moved Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
> (hey, we all eat junk food on occasion...) to plastic wrappers---to
> me, the quality went downhill, because I discovered that I actually
> liked Reese's better when it was slightly stale (the peanut butter
> would harden up), and the new packaging kept it entirely too fresh.


Oddly enough, my brother's wife used to live within walking distance of
a factory that cranked out Reese's peanut butter cups. She'd
occasionally walk down there and buy factory seconds -- mistakes in
packaging, usually. Anyway, the point is, when she moved away, she
discovered that she didn't like them if they weren't fresh off the
factory line.

Takes all kinds. But a drop in the quality of a hershey bar . . . you
couldn't break an egg dropping it that distance. At any rate, big
multimilliondollar companies put a lot of stock in consistency.

When Frito Lay announced that they were going to switch from
hydrogenated vegetable shortening to corn oil for all their frying
operations, there was a space of about four months there where doritos
just weren't right. Some bags were oily, some bags were dry but lacked
flavor, some bags were caked with seasonings. One of the bigger mistakes
they've made has to have been switching right to corn oil without
running it by their obviously extremely talented food scientists first
to come up with documentation for a new production process, since it was
obvious to anyone with a weakness for their carefully calculated chips
that it was taking a while for the workers to get the hang of it.

Hershey probably thinks this plastic packaging will improve the quality
of the end product. It will probably give it a longer shelf life and
less of a propensity to absorb flavors from it's environment. If there
is a quality drop due to issues with the actual packaging process or
materials used, I'm sure they'll iron it out eventually.

And i have no sympathy for anyone who does not respect the sanctity of
foil wrapped chocolate anyhow. Paper indeed.

But like i said, their mint flavored and cookies & cream bars were
always in plastic. I don't even recall if they make those anymore. They
always seemed reasonably easy to open and as tasty as could be expected,
until i developed a sensitivity to some sort of secondary compound or
solvent residue or other impurity in low quality synthesized vanilla and
mint flavorings, which keeps me off cheap chocolate almost entirely. A
really cheap bowl of mint chocolate chip icecream gives me the world's
worst heartburn these days.

- Eric

NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 14:39:48 GMT, Baldy Cotton
> wrote:

>Far as I can tell, someone wrote:
>>Hersheys® is now packaging its milk
>>chocolate in plastic:
>
>So now the wrapper and the candy taste exactly alike!

Now? Haven't they always tasted exactly alike?

(In all my 46 years, I've never been able to tell the difference.)

--
Davida Chazan (The Chocolate Lady)
<davida @ jdc . org . il>
~*~*~*~*~*~
"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of
chocolate."
--Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Links to my published poetry - http://davidachazan.homestead.com/
~*~*~*~*~*~