Milk Duds are a milk chocolate-covered caramel candy. They are currently manufactured by The Hershey Company.

History

According to the manufacturer, the word "Milk" in the name refers to the large amount of milk in the product; the use of "dud" came about because the original aim of having a perfectly round piece was found to be impossible.

Timeline

• 1928: Philo J. Holloway took over the original manufacturer of Milk Duds chocolate covered caramels, F. Hoffman & Company of Chicago.
• 1960: Holloway sold F. Hoffman & Company to Beatrice Foods.
• 1986: Leaf purchased the Milk Duds business.
• 1992: Production of Milk Duds candy was moved to Leaf's Robinson, Illinois, plant.
• 1996: Leaf's North American confectionery operation was acquired by Hershey Foods Corporation.

Ingredient changes to reduce production costs

The Hershey Company recently began to change the ingredients of some of its products, in order to replace the relatively expensive cocoa butter with cheaper oil substitutes. This was done to cut costs, rather than having to raise prices in the marketplace for products containing cocoa butter.

Hershey's changed the description of the product and altered the packaging slightly along with the ingredients. Though the new formula contains chocolate, according to United States Food and Drug Administration food labeling laws, these modified recipes which do not contain cocoa butter can not be legally described as candy coated milk chocolate.

Other products which no longer contain cocoa butter and cannot be described in the United States as containing milk chocolate include: Hershey's Kissables, Krackel, Mr. Goodbar, Whatchamacallit.

References

1. Milk Duds Candy - Hershey'S
2. News article: Aggressive Mars breathes down Hershey's neck in US, Associated Press, October 11, 2008 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5icXPdDNXQp3mVpWAqcs6TEAn09sQD93O30DG0
3. News article: Chocoholics sour on new Hershey’s formula, MSNBC, Sept. 19, 2008 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26788143/

External links

• Hershey's Official Milk Duds Page
• Various famous American recipes using Hershey's Milk Duds