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Hershey: Care in Every Bite. 

Each ingredient earns its place. 

Care in Every Bite

At Hershey, we care about making snacks and treats people love. To us, quality is care that you can see, experience, and enjoy in every bite you bring home. And we want to be sure that’s reflected in each decision we make, at every step.

Because care in every bite means that each of our snacks and treats lives up to its promise, whether it's the milk chocolate you expect from our classic Hershey's chocolate bar or Kisses, the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter in a Reese’s cup, the satisfying crunch of whole grain popcorn in SkinnyPop, or the creamy chocolate and unmistakable crisp of a KitKat.

Recipes made with care, ingredients that earn their place, snacks and treats that deliver what you love—that’s our promise. 

Every Ingredient in a Hershey Recipe Has a Purpose

Whether it’s there for flavor, for how it feels when you bite into it, or to keep your favorites fresh from batch to batch, every ingredient earns its place. From roasting raw peanuts for Reese's to using fresh milk from nearby farms for our classic Hershey’s chocolate bars, we make sure every ingredient we choose lives up to your tastes and preferences.

Being thoughtful about our ingredients also means always listening to you and looking for ways to deliver what you’re looking for. So as tastes evolve, so do our recipes, making sure your favorite treats meet your moment - like helping those reaching for plant-based options on one of our most beloved brands like Reese’s and Hershey’s.

The Perfect Combination of Chocolate and Peanut Butter

Our tried-and-true recipe for the iconic Reese's cup never changed: freshly roasted peanuts combined with milk chocolate, made right here in Hershey, Pennsylvania, down the road in Stuart’s Draft, Virginia and other communities around the world.

Our Ingredients, Our Promise

The next steps we’re taking to meet what matters to you.

Consumers love our brands, and we are committed to meeting their evolving needs. We continuously review our recipes to ensure each ingredient earns its place. Across our U.S. portfolio, including brands like Jolly Rancher, Sour Strips, and Shaq-A-Licious, we’re removing FD&C certified colors (commonly known as “artificial” or “synthetic”). Starting in 2027, we’re creating a creamier taste for KitKat, and we’re extending the beloved recipes for our classic Hershey’s bars and Reese’s cups to a small portion of our core chocolate portfolio that is currently not consistent with our classic recipes.

Across our U.S. portfolio, including brands like Jolly Rancher, Sour Strips, and Shaq-A-Licious, we’re removing FD&C certified colors (commonly known as “artificial” or “synthetic”).

Starting in 2027, we are enhancing the KitKat recipe to create a creamier taste and texture.

The ingredients in our classic Hershey’s bar and Reese’s peanut butter cups have not changed — the remaining small portion of Hershey’s and Reese’s portfolio will be brought in line with those classic milk and dark chocolate recipes.

Changing a recipe takes many months and even years to do well — even when it's a handful of products. This work has been underway since our July 2025 decision to remove FD&C certified colors from our U.S. portfolio. We want to get it right, and that means careful consumer taste testing, packaging updates, manufacturing planning, and ingredient sourcing along the way.

No. This was planned by our Executive Team as part of a broader vision to Lead Next Generation Snacking and reflects a series of holistic investments across our portfolio of sweet treats and salty snacks. The work has been underway for some time and is limited to a small portion of extensions within the Reese’s and Hershey’s brand lineups. It reflects evolving consumer preferences and our July 2025 commitment to remove FD&C certified colors from our U.S. portfolio.

We’re always listening to the people who enjoy our brands and paying close attention to how preferences and tastes evolve, continuously reviewing and enhancing recipes and ingredients. These changes reflect what we’ve heard and what we know matters to them, whether that’s what’s in their favorite chocolate or how their go-to snack fits into their life.

Yes. We continually test our recipes with people who enjoy our brands and trained taste testers to make sure any changes deliver the same experience they expect. Before anything reaches shelves, they confirm it lives up to what they know and love.

Yes. All Hershey Company treats and snacks are safe to eat. Food safety is our top priority, always.

You will begin to see updated treats and snacks from Reese’s, KitKat and Hershey’s in 2027.

Cow close-up
Each Ingredient Earns Its Place

You’ll always be able to easily see clear, straightforward explanations of what’s in our beloved recipes like the classic Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar and Reese’s cup and why, such as:

Milk Ingredients

What we mean: Ingredients derived from milk, including milk fat and milk solids, such as milk, cream, butter, and skim milk, as permitted under U.S. FDA standards of identity.



Why we use it: To create the creamy texture and full flavor of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate.

Fun Fact: In the early 1900s, Milton S. Hershey chose central Pennsylvania and its many dairy farms to supply fresh, fluid milk for his company.

Learn More About Our Ingredients

Allergens
We understand the importance of making informed choices when shopping with an allergen or food sensitivity in mind.

Dietary Needs
Everyone deserves more moments of goodness. For us, that means making our beloved products more accessible to more people and meeting a wide-range of dietary and lifestyle needs.

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