Mars takes a bite out of chocolate giant Hershey

‘Chocolate’ candy
Hershey would not provide a list of the products in which it uses a substitute. But under the federal government's rules for food standards, Hershey cannot call those products "chocolate," and a keen eye can scan the packaging and ingredients list and figure it out, candy bar by candy bar.

On the packaging, Hershey dances around the term — Whatchamacallit has a "chocolatey coating," Mr. Goodbar is "made with chocolate" and Kissables are "chocolate candy."

And sometimes ingredients speak for themselves: Products with the substitutes don't taste fresh and vibrant, said Cybele May of Los Angeles, who reviews sweets at http://www.candyblog.net.

"The wonderful thing about cocoa butter is that it melts in your mouth," May said. "Oils replicate that behavior, but they never get it right."

Different types of cacao products Here's a look at definitions for different types of cacao products, or chocolate, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Cacao nibs: Made by removing the shell from cacao beans. May be processed by heating or adding other ingredients, such as sodium bicarbonate or citric acid. Chocolate liquor: An ingredient in many types of chocolate. Prepared by finely grinding cacao nibs. Contains between 50 percent and 60 percent by weight of cacao fat. Can be adjusted using cacao fat and cocoas, such as breakfast cocoa, regular cocoa or lowfat cocoa. Cocoa: Made by pulverizing material left after part of the cacao fat has been removed from ground nibs. Cacao fat content is between 10 percent and 22 percent by weight. Lowfat cocoa: Same as cocoa but cacao fat is less than 10 percent. Milk chocolate: Made by mixing and grinding chocolate liquor with at least one dairy ingredient, such as milk, and one type of sweetener. Contains not less than 10 percent by weight of chocolate liquor and not less than 3.39 percent by weight of milkfat. Source: FDA

Given health scares and concerns about food quality — Chinese milk anyone? — it can be an effective marketing tactic for Mars to cast doubt on its rival's product, said Jean-Pierre Dube, a marketing professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. And with both companies strapped by the skyrocketing cost of commodities such as cocoa and milk, Mars' knocks on Hershey's quality might persuade consumers to pay a higher price for a Mars product, Dube said.

Whether Mars' criticism is fair is another question.

Hershey is not alone in using chocolate substitutes: Mars does it in countries where the rules are different. Other candymakers, including Nestle, do not use real chocolate in some of their U.S. candy.

And Mars is doing its own cost-cutting — by slimming down some of its package sizes.

Fair or not, Laurel Haring's mind is made up.

Once a daily devotee to Hershey's Kissables, Haring noticed this year that the candies had stopped tasting like, well, chocolate.

"It wasn't creamy, it wasn't sweet, it wasn't milky," said Haring, 47. "It was just nasty."

Haring's husband prowled drugstores and grocery stores near their home in Wilmington, Del., in search of the good Kissables, and came up empty. She even contacted Hershey to tell them something was wrong — and got coupons instead of an explanation.

A few weeks ago, she stumbled onto an online news item about Hershey's use of substitutes — it featured an image of Kissables — but by then she had moved on.

To Dove Promise squares.

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