Kraft Heinz has changed its iconic Macaroni & Cheese recipe for the better, but shockingly, nobody has even noticed the difference. More than 50 million boxes of the new recipe have been sold since, but the popular brand hadn't revealed that customers were eating a healthier version of the comfort food, until now.
Last April, Kraft announced that it had plans to remove all synthetic coloring and preservatives from the recipe, and it secretly made the switch without making a big deal about it. If Kraft had been clear on the new ingredients from the start, there probably would have been a ton of backlash or unhappy customers claiming it didn't taste like the original. So, by choosing to quietly switch over to the new formula in December, it has found that the change went unnoticed.
"As we considered changing the ingredients of our classic Blue Box, we did so knowing we had to maintain our iconic look, taste and texture," Gregory Guidotti, vice president of meals a Kraft Heinz, said in a press release. "We'd invite Americans to try our new recipe, but they most likely already have."
The new recipe has replaced artificial dyes "yellow 5" and "yellow 6" with paprika, annatto and turmeric while also completely removing all artificial preservatives. Since the new taste, appeal and texture are so similar, "virtually no one noticed." Kraft is also celebrating the accomplishment with the camapign, "It's changed. But it hasn't."
"When we originally announced that we were going to change the recipe last April - there was a lot of excitement, but also some concern," Guidotti told Forbes. "We heard things like, 'I hope the taste doesn't change,' and 'don't mess with my mac & cheese.' Since we knew that the new product tasted just as good as the old, we wanted fans to experience the new recipes for themselves without being prompted. So, beginning in December, boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese with the new recipe began hitting stores without any fanfare...No press release or prominent emblems on boxes, just the same great taste and familiar look...with changes only on the ingredient line."
Brands like Annie's have become rivals of Kraft, so it wanted to be able to make the same claims as its competitors. Annie's is an organic line that offers a popular mac & cheese that features real cheese and no preservatives or artificial flavors, and now Kraft can say the same.
"Consumers never want us to mess with the look or the taste of the product they love," Guidotti said. "But if they can feel better about it because of the ingredients that are in it, that's all for the better."
