Folks, when this sort of thing makes its way from the conspiracy pages to the Wall Street Journal, you can be reasonably certain there's something to it:
[T]hrongs of Oreo fans [have] been perturbed in recent years by what some feel could be one of the biggest inflation scandals to hit supermarkets to date: "Double Stuf" Oreos with just a normal amount of creme, and even less in the original-sized versions. Some gripe that the filling no longer reaches the wafers' edges. Others say the cookies now bear little resemblance to the creme-stuffed images on Oreo's packaging.
You might scoff at that. But take a look at a typical package of Oreo cookies:
That thing looks big enough to climb into!
I mean that white line of cream looks like a quarter-inch thick. That's a lot of cream. Now consider an actual real-life Oreo as pulled from a YouTube short:
Can you even SEE any cream between those cookies?
This is not just an isolated observation. People are noticing:
Beverly Cooper, 60, of Lincoln, Neb., said she and her husband have withstood changes to many of their favorite foods recently, from cereal to ice cream. But finding what appeared to be a downsized dusting of creme in their Double Stuf Oreos last month was the last straw.
"It's a sign of the times," Cooper said. "This is the way of the world now."
Real Grapes of Wrath vibes on this one, folks.
Oreos have been an evening ritual for Shane Ransonet for years.
So he was confounded a few months ago when he opened a package and, as had long been his custom, jabbed a fork into a cookie's creme filling to dunk it into a glass of milk. The cookie broke.
Ransonet, a bottled-water salesman in New Iberia, La., showed his wife, Christine, the offending Oreo. Like others in the box, the twin chocolate wafers were smeared with just a thin coat of creme, far less, he said, than the typical blob he was used to.
THE HORROR!
The company, meanwhile, says it "is always working to improve Oreos, but that it hasn't messed with the cookie-to-creme ratio."
"We would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we would start to play around with the quality," said Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put.
They're just straight-up denying it.
The Wall Street Journal had to bring in the big guns because THIS IS IMPORTANT:
Lynn Dornblaser, director of innovation and insight at market-research firm Mintel, said a review of regular and Double Stuf Oreos since 2004 found no observable changes in their on-pack ingredient and nutrition statements. She said consumer complaints could reflect manufacturing issues in cookie plants, adding that it's easy for fans to notice variations in products as specific and precise as Oreos.
On a recent day in November, a pack of regular Oreos in Chicago contained cookies that appeared stuffed with varying amounts of creme. Some Double Stuf cookies were similar in width to the fattest regular Oreos but the creme often spread farther to the cookie's edge.
What do you think? Has Biden's best economy ever finally come for our most sacred of foods??
There's one way the company could end the debate: Add more cream!
In Long Island, N.Y., Brandon Grunther, who runs a pro-wrestling podcast, said he wondered "am I going crazy?" after opening a package of Double Stuf Oreos in June. He had just tucked into an afternoon snack when he noticed the creme filling was less thick than he remembered, and its circumference was smaller too. He described his experience on Twitter, now known as X, and tagged Oreo.
Grunther said Mondelez sent him a coupon for a package of Oreos in response, but he hasn't used it yet — he's waiting for the release of a new, unusual flavor.
"I appreciated it," Grunther, 34, said. "Though I definitely would rather just have more creme."
MAKE IT SO, OREO!
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
