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Kraft Cleans Up Mac ‘N’ Cheese … For Europe
Sure, nobody thinks of Kraft macaroni and cheese as a healthful treat. Delicious, yes. Easy, sure. But it contains a lot of salt, no fiber and very, very little nutritional punch for the calories it packs.
Even so, Kraft mac ‘n’ cheese could do better, and it has — just not for its American and Canadian consumers.
According to Robyn O’brien‘s The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It, Kraft gave in to consumer demand and removed artificial food colorings yellow #5 and the sweetener aspertame from boxes shipped to Europe and Australia. Those chemicals are still in the famous blue boxes sold in North America (you didn’t think that orange color occured in nature, did you?).
The advocacy group Moms Rising is calling for people to send letters to Kraft demanding that they take out these artificial chemicals from the products sold in Canada and the U.S. as well.
It is pretty outrageous that they’d clean up the stuff for one set of customers but not all. What do you think?
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[...] Kraft Cleans Up Mac ‘n’ Cheese … For Europe [...]
Where Do Parents Fit In the Childhood Obesity Puzzle? | Strollerderby commented on Sep 08 09 at 12:26 am[...] Kraft Cleans Up Mac ‘N’ Cheese — in Europe Only [...]
They Say: Post-Partum Depression Totally Predictable | Strollerderby commented on Sep 29 09 at 1:48 pm[...] our Kraft Mac and Cheese. NEVER, EVER, EVER eat Kraft Mac and Cheese. I’m still mad about [...]
Proper Maintenance « PERSONAL Health Care Reform commented on Jan 01 10 at 2:13 pmManjari commented on Sep 01 09 at 4:32 pmI think there are enough alternatives available that we don’t have to buy Kraft.
diera commented on Sep 01 09 at 4:38 pmI agree with the previous commenter. I suspect that this is because the customers in the US who care about health are already buying Annie’s or making their own mac and cheese, and the customers who are Kraft’s major market in the US just don’t care much about these kinds of things.
Laure68 commented on Sep 01 09 at 4:48 pmI agree with the previous 2 comments. I am sure there are lots of people who buy Kraft mac&cheese in the US that would be upset if the taste/look changed. The rest of us just eat something else.
I get much more upset when a product is packaged as “healthy” or “natural” and has lots of junk in it. Kraft is what it is.
GP commented on Sep 01 09 at 5:00 pmThe big companies cater to the lowest common denominator…which is the US regs that are not as stringent as the EU regs.
ceecee commented on Sep 01 09 at 8:26 pmSomeone should do a study on people like me who grew up in the early 70s thru mid 80s. When I am totally down and out, all I want is a bowl of Kraft dinner and some hostess cakes. Those chemicals call my name in my darkest moments even though I know they are gross and bad for me and never make it into my own kids’ lunches.
shesameanie commented on Sep 02 09 at 12:25 amDo you seriously think most of the people who buy Kraft mac & cheese even have the resources to research whether or not the product is healthy, let alone afford to buy Annie’s instead? European food safety standards are better than ours and everyone who lives there benefits, even the poor. It’s outrageous that it’s so different here.
PlumbLucky commented on Sep 02 09 at 7:27 amTrader Joe’s has a pretty good version of Mac and Cheese…fits the requirement of “I don’t need to google more than one thing, if that, in the ingredient list”. And it really sucks that Kraft caters to the LCD like they do, just because someone can’t afford something better or doesn’t have the time/resources to become educated about the crap that they’re ingesting…doesn’t make it right.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Sep 02 09 at 8:28 amAmerican food manufacturers aren’t so much catering to the LCD, as they are taking advantage of them by providing chemical-laden concoctions that are barely nutrition.
cocobean commented on Sep 02 09 at 8:50 ambuying annies isn’t really any better. Look at the ingredient lists on these foods! They are made in a lab not in the ground like nature intended for us to have. Maybe we shouldn’t be feeding our kids macaroni and cheese at all. What’s wrong with good old fashioned vegetables and fruit? What about yogurt made from non hormone and antibiotic cows? Kraft didn’t change there mac and cheese here because they know that we don’t really want it to be changed! I am one of the people who is not doing so well in this economy but if I have to resort to buying my family shit like kraft mac and cheese that is still starving! Eventually it is going to kill us it just might take a little longer.
GP commented on Sep 02 09 at 9:14 amit’s pretty cheap to buy plain pasta, a block of cheddar and some milk and make your own…throw in some broccoli and you’re golden
Laure68 commented on Sep 02 09 at 11:28 amIs it true that the regulations for food are stricter in Europe? I really have no idea, but I do know that, at least for the French, their tastes are very different. They prefer things less sweet and less artificially colored. A lot of Americans are the opposite of this. This is why I think Kraft keeps their product in the US the way it is, because people like it better.
I agree with cocobean that Annie’s is not really better. It is still processed food. Just because something it sold at Whole Foods doesn’t make it healthy.
Stacey commented on Sep 02 09 at 12:34 pmYes, the regulations are stricter in Europe, at least in Germany. Very few artificial colors, preservatives, and flavors are cleared for use, and no hormones or antibiotics are allowed in the milk/meat industries. But, I’ve *never* seen Kraft mac and cheese here. I’ll keep a look out for it, since I do kinda miss it!
Bunny commented on Sep 02 09 at 1:50 pmI do have to say – I know exactly what is in that crap, and I still eat it sometimes as a quick, guilty-pleasure treat (it’s great when I’m feeling ill). And, as a customer of theirs, I’d rather they took some of the nastiness out of there. But I do agree with the commenters who say they’re not bothering to make these changes in the US version because Americans just plain don’t care, and will keep buying what they’re selling.
DCMama commented on Sep 02 09 at 6:03 pmUm? Why, why, why is there aspretame in mac-n-cheese? Was that there when we were kids, or did some crazy “healthy” trend, make them take out sugar? Crazy. We are totally crazy.
Eric commented on Sep 03 09 at 1:12 amLook, I don’t think the Kraft Mac and Cheese is a great health food, but saying that it is going to kill you is going a little far. Kraft doesn’t want to kill you. The USDA also, does not want you dead. Both have actually gone to great lengths to try to keep food safe while allowing a wide market for varied products that people want to eat. Are there places where they should improve? You bet. But just because a factory made your food (out of stuff grown in the ground like wheat, animal products like eggs and cheese) doesn’t necessarily make it bad. What it does make it is cheap.
cocobean commented on Sep 03 09 at 12:30 pmeric, I know that eating this stuff sometimes is not going to kill you. But lets be honest most people don’t just eat this stuff sometimes. Go through the grocery store and look at ingredients to everything. Tell me that they are made from things from the earth. Even regular meat purchased at the grocery store is full of stuff that was made in a lab not the ground. I’m not saying that kraft mac and cheese is the only culprit here it’s just part of a much much bigger problem. America wants cheap food so that no noe starves but it’s killing us. People need to stop buying food that isn’t food and demand that companies make quality products.
Marj commented on Sep 03 09 at 1:56 pmI wish they would take that crap out of all our food. Why have a healthier version for different nations? Why don’t we all get the healthier alternative? Sure I could buy Annie’s at twice the price. Sure I could make it from scratch, but with newborn twins, that’s not gonna happen. Sometimes toast takes more time to make than what the twins give me. Companies shouldn’t be allowed to give people crap just because they can. Also, I wish we got actual sugar in our sodas like the Canadians instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Eric commented on Sep 03 09 at 6:26 pmI try not to eat aspartamine and other artificial sweeteners when possible, but study after study have shown that even at exteme levels it is not particularly dangerous. To talk about killing people with it is just fear. By the way, I raise “regualar meat” for a living. I don’t think that any of the common beef practices raise any kind of health risk. I can’t speak to the other “regular meat” as I’ve only spent a small time raising pork and none raising poultry. Just because something comes from a lab, does not make it bad for you. Lots of medicines, vaccines, vitamin supplements, cosmetics,and ointments come from labs and are actually very beneficial to humans. If the super-organic farming people win the battle for food production the world WILL starve. The worlds population growth dictates that we must produce more food in the next 40 years than we did in the last 10,000. This will require new techniques, new genetics, and new chemicals. Making we make the correct, safe choices is vital to our future health. Deciding that agriculture can’t advance its science beyond the 1940′s will see us all starve.
Laure68 commented on Sep 03 09 at 7:57 pmMarj – replacing HFCS with sugar does not make it healthier. It is still a processed food. (I have heard people say it tastes better with sugar.)
I totally know that it is sometimes impossible to avoid processed food when there is zero time to make your own. However, I do think certain companies have latched onto the “natural” or “healthy” label as a marketing gimmick.
Matt commented on Nov 03 09 at 2:55 pmI wonder at the European reaction to this change. Was it positive? Did they welcome the reformulated Kraft Dinner back into their diets because they removed the more or less harmless artificial sweetener and yellow dye? I noticed the article did not include anything about enriching the pasta with nutrients or using actual cheese int heir sauce which would at least provide some vitamins.
Canuckmom commented on Nov 16 11 at 3:52 pmI never saw KD when I lived in Europe, except in an American store in Amsterdam that sold American “novelties” and clothes. I think it cost about 4 times what I’d pay here, but it was worth it!
And, to be perfectly honest, Annie’s kinda tastes like styrofoam.
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