Krackel is a chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 candy bar

Candy bar

A chocolate bar is a confection in bar form comprising some or all of the following components: cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, milk. The relative presence or absence of these components form the subclasses of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. In addition to these main...

 made by The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey's, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S...

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Krackel contains crisped rice

Crisped rice

Crisped rice refers to a method of cooking rice which leaves the grains with a crisp, airy texture.It is created in much the same way as popcorn; in short, the reaction of both starch and moisture when heated within the shell of the grain...

, and is similar to the competing Nestlé Crunch

Nestlé Crunch

Nestlé Crunch is the name of a chocolate bar made of milk chocolate with crisped rice mixed in, produced by Nestlé. Its current slogan is, "For the Kid in You." It was first introduced in 1937....

 bar made by Nestlé

Nestlé

Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...

. Krackel originally sold as an individual candy bar product, and is now only available as one of the four varieties of Hershey's Miniatures

Hershey's Miniatures

Hershey’s Miniatures are packaged assortments of miniature-sized candy bars sold by The Hershey Company.-Description:Hershey’s Miniatures were originally packaged as an assortment in 1939, and featured the most popular Hershey chocolate bars of that time. The product currently contains traditional...

. Introduced in 1938, Krackel originally also had almond

Almond

The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...

s in its formula. Peanuts were then added in 1939, but both the almonds and peanuts were removed in 1941. The product's packaging can be identified by its distinctive red background with white lettering.

Ingredient changes to reduce production costs

The Hershey Company started to change the ingredients of some of its products, in order to replace the relatively expensive cocoa butter

Cocoa butter

Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, pure edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, biscuits, and baked goods, as well as some pharmaceuticals, ointments, and toiletries...

 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 and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

  food labeling

Mandatory labelling

Mandatory labelling or labeling is the requirement of consumer products to state their ingredients or components....

 laws, these modified recipes which do not contain cocoa butter can not be legally described as 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

Hershey's Kissables

Hershey Kissables were a chocolate candy sold by The Hershey Company from late 2005 to 2009. Comparable to M&Ms, Hershey Kissables were shaped like miniature Hershey's Kisses and were coated in a thick sugar shell....

, Milk Duds

Milk Duds

Milk Duds are a caramel candy, historically enrobed with milk chocolate and currently enrobed with a confectionery coating made from cocoa and vegetable oil. They are currently manufactured by The Hershey Company. Milk Dud's are an excellent source of Calcium, containing as much Calcuim as an 8 0z...

, Mr. Goodbar

Mr. Goodbar

Mr. Goodbar is a chocolate-flavored candy bar containing peanuts, whose packaging can be easily identified by its distinctive yellow background and red text. It is manufactured by The Hershey Company and was introduced in 1925...

, and Whatchamacallit

Whatchamacallit (candy)

Whatchamacallit is the name of a candy bar in the United States made by The Hershey Company. This candy bar was first introduced in 1978. Since 1987, Whatchamacallit has included peanut-flavored crisp with a layer of caramel and a layer of milk chocolate coating...

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