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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

#131

Post by duaneb »

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…

> Since I've discovered I've had celiac (the real deal)

Do people pretend to have celiacs? God why?

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

#132

Post by Dylan16807 »

Latty wrote: post #62
mikeash wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And it's worth noting this is one of those places where the technicalities kill it. How major a change is needed to trigger a 'formula changed' warning? The reality is lots of products these days change on a batch-by-batch basis to reduce costs or use what is available. Legislation forcing companies to disclose that something has changed in a more noticable (less specific) way, would no doubt just result in those war…

Do all those batches have customized nutritional information and ingredient lists? If those are the same, then the variations on the formula don't matter.

I think having the year+month of the last recipe change would work perfectly fine. If you care what the ingredients are, it's very easy to notice. Much better than 'new'. The goal is not to force anyone to care. The goal is to have information be convenient. Scouring the entirety of the nutritional info is not convenient. And adding the date is a minimal burden to the company.

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

#133

Post by duaneb »

mathattack wrote: post #110
symfoniq wrote: post #77

Having young children, there's almost always a box of macaroni and cheese in the house. My kids, who fancy themselves mac & cheese connoisseurs, started complaining about the taste of Kraft a couple of months ago. So now when Kraft advertises on TV that they changed their mac & cheese and nobody noticed, my eight- and six-year-old just roll their eyes. I suppose the upside is, they're already learning that you can't…

I've started making our own (just macaroni and melted cheese) with my kids. It tastes better, but the one thing we haven't been able to replicate is the bright orange color.

The bright orange is annatto.

On a personal note, I find the color to be nauseous.

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

#134

Post by jerf »

duaneb wrote: post #131
jerf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Since I've discovered I've had celiac (the real deal) Do people pretend to have celiacs? God why?

The "real deal" for gluten sensitivity. Also wanted to head off "are you sure you're sensitive to gluten? there's a lot of questions about that in medicine right now" questions. Yes, I have the one that's definitely medically real. I wish it were just my imagination. :-/ (Or, alternatively, that I had found out ~25 years earlier.)

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

#135

Post by Nadya »

duaneb wrote: post #131
jerf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Since I've discovered I've had celiac (the real deal) Do people pretend to have celiacs? God why?

Not necessarily. They are trying to be "health conscience". Sugar-free diet! Fat-free diet! Both arguably good, healthier diets to have.

Then you get people who reason themselves into "Gluten-free!" must be a good thing! I blame the "____-free" moniker often being related to "healthier for you" diets. People will seek out "gluten-free" and there have been cases of restaurants serving "gluten-free" food that wasn't actually "gluten-free".

I've heard a number of cases from actual gluten sensitive individuals who have a love/hate relationship with this fad.

1) More gluten-free things to choose from! Yay!

2) More "gluten-free" things that can potentially kill them, causing them to have to be even more careful than they already were with what they choose to eat! Boo!

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

#136

Post by darkclarity »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #68
kingosticks wrote: post #35

Are Kraft and Mondelez the same company? They now own British chocolate company Cadbury and have received a lot of criticism for changing recipes there (amongst other things). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/7-ways-ca...

Kraft renamed themselves Mondelez after spinning off grocery brands who now use the Kraft name - Philadelphia cheese etc. Mondelez are well on the way to destroying the Cadbury brand here. One of the things Kraft made a big deal of during the takeover was promising to keep a particular UK plant open. 7 days after finalisation they announced the plant's closure. Creme Eggs are now revolting, It's not even Cadbury choc…

Cadbury's chocolate now reminds me of the stuff I used to find in cheap advent calendars and low end pick 'n' mix.

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

#137

Post by mhurron »

logfromblammo wrote: post #114
gambiting wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep saying to myself that I need to go to one of those world food sections at my local supermarket and buy a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese to try it,but I always forget - is it really worth it?

If you are paying more than the equivalent of US$1 per box, no. Kraft Mac & Cheese is the spiritual equivalent of top ramen noodles, artificial cheese flavor. There is no intrinsic American cultural value to it. Many of us do grant it some nostalgia value, because we grew up without a lot of money, and it was, and still is, cheap and filling food for poor people. A suitable protein accompaniment is a can of chunk lig…

> There is no intrinsic American cultural value to it

Of course not, Kraft Dinner is the national dish of Canada.

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

#138

Post by mbesto »

jedberg wrote: post #129

We did the same thing at reddit when we upgraded the search system. First we put a little survey on every search result that said "Are you satisfied with these results? yes/no". After we collected enough data, we changed the entire search backend out, but told no one. After a few months of collecting data showing the satisfaction go from ~70% to ~90%, we made a blog post explaining what we did. Here's the real kicker…

Make no mistake about it, this is clearly a marketing ploy by Kraft's ad agency. They are battling the minds of consumers who are (as of recent) continually seeing companies change ingredients and then be marketed to because it's "preservatives are bad...now with less preservatives!", with an undesirable side effect of "hmmm, but it tastes different". Coke Zero is a great example of this effect.

I'm not so sure Reddit's system is that similar. Reddit had a serious issue with search functionality not reaching the desired effect, and was easily circumvented by using Google search directly on reddit.

In reddit's case it was about completing a task and reaching a goal ("I now can search for something and it works"), for Kraft this is about perception and desire ("This tastes good!").

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

#139

Post by 0xffff2 »

Symbiote wrote: post #123
logfromblammo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are paying more than the equivalent of US$1 per box, no. Kraft Mac & Cheese is the spiritual equivalent of top ramen noodles, artificial cheese flavor. There is no intrinsic American cultural value to it. Many of us do grant it some nostalgia value, because we grew up without a lot of money, and it was, and still is, cheap and filling food for poor people. A suitable protein accompaniment is a can of chunk lig…

It's actually an English recipe. Here is an 1859 version of the recipe, from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management . http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10136/pg10136-images.htm... And here's the original, from 1786 in The Experienced English Housekeeper : http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.rsmcze;view=1up;se...

Those are just recipes for macaroni and cheese. Macaroni and Cheese has little to no relation to Kraft Mac & Cheese in practice.

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

#140

Post by Dylan16807 »

parennoob wrote: post #80
JohnTHaller wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree that Food Babe makes a lot of rather silly arguments "That ingredient in Subway bread is also used in car tires!", etc. but she has drawn attention to some unnecessary additive choices (like 4-Mel in Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes), which I think is helpful. Even if the additive is not harmful, as a consumer, it's good to have more knowledge about what Starbucks puts in their drinks. Having watchdogs like the…

> she has drawn attention to some unnecessary additive choices

Most ingredients are unnecessary. Nothing useful about picking random ones to complain about on that basis alone.

> Even if the additive is not harmful, as a consumer, it's good to have more knowledge about what Starbucks puts in their drinks.

In theory it's always good to learn things. In practice there is limited time throughout the day, and a popular enough food blog about harmless additives gets in the way of people trying to find out about harmful additives.

>Having watchdogs like the Food Babe keeps companies a bit more on their toes about the health impacts of their additives than they would be otherwise.

No it doesn't. It keeps them on their toes about ~spooky~ ingredients, and more likely to pick natural ingredients even when they are inferior or worse for you than artificial ones.

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