Food corporations are taking the hint from First Lady Michelle Obama and downsizing their most popular products.
According to NPR’s The Salt, by the end of 2013, chocolate-maker Mars says all of its chocolate bars will be under — or right at — the 250-calorie mark.
The fun-size and the king-size bars currently range from 70 to 540 calories, which means the new 250-calorie limit spells the end of the king-size bar.
The Mars company tells The Salt:
[I]t will be replaced with bags of two or four smaller bars. The idea is to “enable sharing or saving a portion for later,” according to a Mars spokesperson.
Basically, the king of candy bars wants its customers to enjoy responsible snacking kind-of like the way beer and alcohol companies insert the popular slogan in their ads: “Drink responsibly.”
With all the fixation on our civilization’s expanding waistlines, it’s not that there are bad foods, just big foods. That means you won’t be seeing lower-calorie chocolate or caramel — just less of it.
And the company says it wants to be an industry leader, helping its customers enjoy “responsible snacking.”
The candy-maker says that it’s not clear what size or shape the change to the regular bar will take.
In other words, it could get skinnier and keep its length, or go shorter and stay a little thicker. But, the spokesperson says, “we will always preserve the great taste that consumers love.”
And not all its candies will be forced to downsize. Other favorites such as the Twix bar and M&M’s already fall within the 250-calorie limit.
What do you think? Will you miss the king size bars, or not?
Yes! Away with this oversized glob.
1. I can’t imagine any sort of royalty consuming the likes of a King Size Snickers.
2. I love how child-like consumers are… once you open up a package, you can’t resist the temptation to eat the whole darn thing. You just don’t feel like an accomplished member of society if you fold over the plastic & save the rest for later.
Good job Mars for helping us ration our servings.
Now, can Lays follow suit and commit to only packaging 25 cent bag of chips?