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 Duds

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	1,823 kJ (436 kcal)
Carbohydrates	71.8 g
- Sugars	51.3 g
- Dietary fibre	0 g
Fat	15.4 g
- saturated	9 g
- trans	0 g
Protein	2.6 g
Vitamin A equiv.	0 μg (0%)
Vitamin C	0 mg (0%)
Calcium	102.6 mg (10%)
Iron	0 mg (0%)
Sodium	256.4 mg (17%)
Amounts converted and rounded to be relative to 100 g serving. Hersey's listed serving sive is 39 g or 13 pieces (above amounts are ~2.5641 servings or ~33 pieces). Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: MILK DUDS candy - HERSHEY'S

History

According to the manufacturer, the word "Milk" in the name refers to the large amount of milk in the product; the use of "dud" came about because the original aim of having a perfectly round piece was found to be impossible.^[1]

Timeline

• 1926: F. Hoffman and Company, Chicago, tries to manufacture a perfectly round, chocolate-covered caramel candy, but when its machines turn out confections that are less than round, an employee calls them "duds".
• 1928: Milton J. Holloway takes over the original manufacturer of Milk Duds chocolate covered caramels from F. Hoffman & Company of Chicago.
• 1960: Holloway sells F. Hoffman & Company to Beatrice Foods.
• 1986: Leaf purchases the Milk Duds business.
• 1992: Production of Milk Duds candy is moved to Leaf Candy Company's Robinson, Illinois, plant.
• 1996: Leaf's North American confectionery operation is acquired by Hershey Foods Corporation of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Ingredient changes to reduce production costs

Vintage Holloway's Milk Duds box

The Hershey Company, in 2008, changed the ingredients of some of its products, in order to replace the relatively expensive cocoa butter with cheaper oil substitutes. This was done to retain a current product price, rather than having to raise prices in the marketplace for products containing cocoa butter.^[2]

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 labeling laws, these modified recipes which do not contain cocoa butter can not be legally described as candy coated in milk chocolate.^[3]

References

1. ^ Milk Duds Candy - Hershey's
2. ^ News article: Aggressive Mars breathes down Hershey's neck in US, Associated Press, October 11, 2008 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5icXPdDNXQp3mVpWAqcs6TEAn09sQD93O30DG0
3. ^ News article: Chocoholics sour on new Hershey’s formula, MSNBC, Sept. 19, 2008 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26788143/

External links

• Hershey's Official Milk Duds Page