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Rising Costs Mean Food Companies Are Making Snacks, Sodas Taste Worse

But the Coke didn’t taste as good as it used to — and it left a weird aftertaste. I thought there might be something wrong with the can, or perhaps my rosy childhood memories clouded my judgment. But as I indulged my urge, I found the same thing. Even Coke-drinking friends I spoke to agreed: The taste had changed.

It wasn’t just Coke; other foods from my childhood taste different now. The Dairy Milk chocolate bars I used to enjoy after school aren’t as creamy and taste too sweet. Lay’s potato chips don’t pack the same flavor punch they used to. A stroll through Reddit shows I’m not alone: Thousands of people have noticed the quality of their favorite snacks getting worse.

“Ritz crackers. For some inexplicable reason, maybe around 5 years ago the crackers went from being nice and firm and dippable to nowadays easily crumbling to bits with even the lightest dip,” one user complained a few years ago.

“You could bite into a Twix and feel your teeth travel through a heavy layer of caramel,” another Redditor lamented, adding, “Now they snap in half and taste like a sugar cookie with some chocolate on it.”

“Breyers used to be the best for store-bought ice-cream, but now it’s just a crappy mess,” a third said.

People aren’t imagining these changes — manufacturers are quietly modifying their recipes to save money and maintain their profit margins. The phenomenon, which has been called “skimpflation” and “flavorflation,” is a way to hide the impact of inflation and avoid passing higher costs on to the consumer. But by replacing expensive ingredients with cheaper ones, companies are also making food less tasty, less healthy, and less satisfying.

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