Food Makers Scrimp on Ingredients In an Effort to Fatten Their Profits
By JULIE JARGON
August 23, 2008; Page A1

Here are some highlights:

Major food makers are quietly altering their recipes on candy, dairy products and other top-selling lines, adding fillers and substituting cheaper ingredients to cut costs amid the commodities boom.

Hershey Co. is substituting vegetable oil for a portion of the cocoa butter traditionally used in some of its chocolates. ....

And this about Mars:

Also on Friday, Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms;candies and Snickers bars, said it’s raising some prices and cutting the size of its Funsize candy packs.

Here’s another article on the same topic from Food Navigator that has more information about Hershey’s plans.

Ingredients squeezed out by commodity pressures
By Sarah Hills
27-Aug-2008 - Food companies are changing their formulations and switching to cheaper ingredients in an effort to tackle rising commodity costs.

The interesting bits are:

Meanwhile Hershey is substituting vegetable oil for part of the cocoa butter that is typically used in some of its chocolates as a cost-cutting measure, according to reports.

Kirk Saville, spokesman for The Hershey Company, would not comment on this point. Instead he told FoodNavigator-USA.com: “Hershey is committed to making the world’s best chocolate and confectionery products with the highest-quality ingredients.

“We continue to make Hershey’s, Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with pure milk chocolate - as we have for over a century. As a matter of fact, our portfolio includes far more pure milk and dark chocolate than any of our competitors.”

I also did an interview with ABCNews.com (a business reporter) so they’ll have more on this soon, too.