Hershey's Kissables

Hershey Kissables
Product
Industry Chocolate
Founded Late 2005
Defunct July 2009
Parent The Hershey Company

Hershey Kissables were a chocolate candy sold by The Hershey Company from late 2005 to 2009. Comparable to M&M's, Hershey Kissables were shaped like miniature Hershey's Kisses and were coated in a thick sugar shell.

The basic colors were red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Holiday versions were also made in pastels for Easter, pink and white for Valentines, and red and green for Christmas. In mid-2007 Hershey's introduced a dark chocolate version called Kissables Dark, which featured more subdued colors and a semi-sweet interior.

Hershey ceased production of Kissables in July 2009, according to a customer service representative at the Hershey Company.

Ingredient changes to reduce production costs

In 2007, the Hershey Company began to change the ingredients of some of its products to replace the relatively expensive cocoa butter with cheaper fats.[1] Hershey's changed the description of the product from "candy coated milk chocolate" to "chocolate candy" and altered the packaging and product ingredients.[2] According to United States Food and Drug Administration food labeling laws, these modified recipes could not be legally described as milk chocolate.[3]

The ingredients in 2005 were: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, nonfat milk, milk fat, lactose, soy lecithin, PGPR, and artificial flavors), sugar, red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, blue 1, and carnauba wax.

In 2007, the ingredients were changed to: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil), chocolate, nonfat milk, whey, cocoa butter, milk fat, gum arabic, soy lecithin, artificial colors (red 40, yellow 5, blue 2, blue 1, yellow 6), corn syrup, resinous glaze, salt, carnauba wax, PGPR and vanillin.

References

  1. News article: Aggressive Mars breathes down Hershey's neck in US, Associated Press, October 11, 2008 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5icXPdDNXQp3mVpWAqcs6TEAn09sQD93O30DG0[]
  2. http://consumerist.com/2008/08/hersheys-kissables-no-longer-legally-considered-milk-chocolate.html
  3. News article: Chocoholics sour on new Hershey’s formula, MSNBC, Sept. 19, 2008 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26788143/