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Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

nytimes.com

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Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#51

Post by mikeash »

gberger wrote: post #42
kabdib wrote: post #9

... and this is why people with severe allergies always always always read the ingredients list, even if the packaging has not changed. And always carry emergency medication.

Isn't doing this illegal? Since it makes people think they're buying the same product they always have but it has actually changed. At least in Brazil, every time the formula of a product, or the quantity in the package, is changed, companies have to disclose that on the packaging.

When you say "disclose that on the packaging," do you mean something more than just changing the list of ingredients printed on the package?

Here, the packaging must describe the contents and that description must be accurate, so changes must be reflected there. But nothing requires them to say "hey, we changed this" beyond changing the nutritional information, which most people don't pay attention to.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#52

Post by Coincoin »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #24
mywittyname wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And decades later, we all still talk about it. Classic Coke is so awesome that it cannot be changed because EVERYBODY WILL REVOLT! Achieving that level of mythos about a product is an astonishing accomplishment.

They revolt if they know its happening. Even today Coke has lots of different recipes. A bottle is very different from a fountain machine at a restaurant for instance. And folks don't get out the torches and pitchforks.

Yeah, I don't see how it's possible for all fountains to get the exact same syrup and gas concentrations. Especially with ice and temperature also being factors.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#54

Post by thaumasiotes »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #24
mywittyname wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And decades later, we all still talk about it. Classic Coke is so awesome that it cannot be changed because EVERYBODY WILL REVOLT! Achieving that level of mythos about a product is an astonishing accomplishment.

They revolt if they know its happening. Even today Coke has lots of different recipes. A bottle is very different from a fountain machine at a restaurant for instance. And folks don't get out the torches and pitchforks.

I want to contrast this with your (!) earlier comment:

> Maybe they [Kraft] worried too much. Even though the change was written on the box, nobody noticed or commented. That's how much people cared.

I agree with the comment I'm responding to; I think Kraft was completely correct to worry, for exactly the reason you state here.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#55

Post by JohnTHaller »

runin2k1 wrote: post #23
rocky1138 wrote: post #8

I'm fairly certain this change came to Canada first but unlike the USA, it was announced. Kraft launched a new version of Kraft Dinner (what you Yanks call "Mac and Cheese") with the preservatives replaced by natural things last year. I thought it tasted fine and was happy that it's even a little healthier.

There was a change.org petition by "Food Babe" to get this changed due to a lot of bunk arguments. Replacing a tiny amount of a very common food dye is not going to affect the healthiness in any substantial way.

Food Babe: "When your body is in the air, at a seriously high altitude, your body under goes some serious pressure. Just think about it – Airplanes thrive in places we don’t. You are traveling in a pressurized cabin, and when your body is pressurized, it gets really compressed!"

That line from one of her articles sums up her thought process perfectly.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#56

Post by thaumasiotes »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #12
kabdib wrote: post #9

... and this is why people with severe allergies always always always read the ingredients list, even if the packaging has not changed. And always carry emergency medication.

I feel like that kind of comparison is a good candidate for a side project. Take picture, OCR, compare to old list, turn red if it's different

If anyone actually starts this project, be sure to record two more data points:

- price of product

- food mass of product

Those vary invisibly all the time, and it'd be great to have a record of it.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#57

Post by oftenwrong »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #4

This strategy is how I imagine the "least painful" transition from init to systemd in a distro would go: someone would make the change, tell everyone to update, and then ask if anyone noticed.

Linux users tend to be aware of update contents. They read the changelogs, review the list of packages that will be updated, etc.

I've been using a mac at my new job, and a dialog box popped up today asking if I wanted to update. The options were something like "Not now" and "Update all". How am I supposed to know if I want to update if I don't even know what's going to be updated?

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#58

Post by Latty »

jerf wrote: post #27
kabdib wrote: post #9

... and this is why people with severe allergies always always always read the ingredients list, even if the packaging has not changed. And always carry emergency medication.

Since I've discovered I've had celiac (the real deal) ~6 years ago, I've read a lot more ingredient labels than I used to, and I can vouch for the fact that food formulations change more than you'd expect without fanfare. For all that you might find "gluten free!" splattered all over a lot of things, I can tell you there have also been a lot of foods that have silently gone gluten-free over the years, along with tryi…

I have a diabetic friend who has problems with this - Tesco does a mixed beans in tomato sauce that I liked and recommended to him, and he checked it out and it was low enough in sugar for him.

Later, it jumped, and he was upset about the change, and contacted Tesco - turns out they change the mix for each batch based on the price of certain beans - if the sweeter beans are more expensive, they put in more of the others and add more sugar to try and keep the taste consistent, while keeping costs low.

It makes sense, but it is a pain for people with dietary restrictions (or just those trying to track their intake accurately).

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#59

Post by EGreg »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #28
bjterry wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't a secret, it was fully announced it just didn't have a media blitz associated with it. For example, it was reported on in the Washington Post[1]. 1: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/2...

That agrees with the OP. Still, its not 'fully announced' if they don't have a 'media blitz' - its called a soft launch. In the end almost nobody remembered it was going to happen; almost nobody noticed.

That raises questions about how much a company would have to do to qualify as a media blitz.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#60

Post by cdash »

bjterry wrote: post #26
nyangosling wrote: post #11

I think this story is actually a pretty incredible one. Just logistically it's a very interesting story that they were able to keep their collective corporate mouth shut--and even though it seems they're gearing up to milk the marketing effort now, that they did this without immediate payout in terms of brand marketing is surprising. And it's not like we're talking about a processed food brand with a million variants…

It wasn't a secret, it was fully announced it just didn't have a media blitz associated with it. For example, it was reported on in the Washington Post[1]. 1: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/2...

It was semi announced that they planned on changing the recipe but at the time of the announcement that had not happened yet. It did no roll out until December and they did not announce that.

Of course from the articled submitted they said people were already saying that could taste the difference before the change was ever made.

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