15 Foods That Don't Taste As Good As They Used To

All of us probably have foods that we swear don't taste the way they used to. Occasionally, you might feel like you're the only one who can notice anything different, but there are times when fans join together to decry a change in a food they've loved for years. Sometimes, it comes down to nostalgia. We associate certain foods with fond memories of our youth and as our tastes evolve, it might just turn out that the food we were eating was pretty awful all along. 

However, there are foods that do change for one reason or another. Brands change ownership, and the new buyers might want to try something new to appeal to customers. Recipes, ingredients, and manufacturing processes can also change for plenty of valid reasons. Some ingredients become hard to source and are more expensive, forcing companies to find alternatives. This can be especially true when brands are looking to scale up and need to buy ingredients in greater quantities, or need to increase durability and shelf-life to export their food around the world. Whatever the reason, below is a list of foods that most consumers agree have changed over time, and not for the better.

Most people would argue that when it comes to mayonnaise, nothing comes close to Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise. However, a few years ago, loyal customers began to raise concerns that their go-to mayo was no longer the same spread they knew and loved, a surprising revelation considering the mayo had barely changed since its invention over a century ago.

The main issue was that the consistency was thinner, more soupy, and less viscous, but some consumers also complained that their jars tasted different, almost rancid. Hellmann's insisted their recipe was unchanged, but Joanne Seltsam, a descriptive taster for a consulting firm specializing in consumer sensory experiences, agrees that, "The texture is definitely different" (via Slate). She goes on to explain that even if the ingredients list has remained the same, the manufacturing process may have been altered, impacting the texture and the familiar taste of the world's most popular mayo brand.

While everyone has their favorites, there's no denying that Red Delicious apples were seen as the clear winner for decades when it came to taste and appearance. However, the quality of this particular type of apple has clearly dropped as time goes by.

Although some companies go to great lengths to deny their products are any different, there's a clear reason that Red Delicious apples are now a shadow of their former self. As is the case with many types of fresh produce – as demand increases, growers are forced to adapt to meet consumers' expectations through selective breeding. As Red Delicious apples were highly regarded for their bright red, waxy appearance — this was given priority over flavor — the results were a somewhat mealy texture. The apples also needed to be more resistant for transport across the country, so growers chose mutations with tougher skin. While this helped the apples retain their appearance, by the time they hit store shelves many consumers found the change to be less than appetizing.

Just like apples, strawberry growers have spent years selectively breeding their fruit for specific properties. While consumers might argue that taste is the most important quality of a strawberry, the evidence says otherwise.

In an interview with NPR, Marvin Pritts, a horticulture professor from Cornell, says their research shows that "We've seen that yield has increased. We've seen that firmness has increased. But we've seen that sugar content and flavor has somewhat decreased." This implies that consumers view bigger as better, and that growers have sacrificed flavor in order to meet demand and ensure their strawberries survive transportation across the country. While this is unlikely to change any time soon, the best solution is to try and avoid buying your strawberries from supermarkets where they're likely to be mass-produced, and try and source them from a reputable farmers market if you live in an area that grows strawberries locally.

If you've ever wondered why banana-flavored sweets and treats taste uniquely different from real bananas, there's a pretty interesting reason for it. The chemist who created the artificial banana flavor was replicating the taste of a real banana, only that species is one that's extremely hard to find these days.

Between the 1870s and the 1950s, the Gros Michel variety was the standard banana variety across America, but it was nearly wiped out entirely in the mid-20th century. Panama disease, a blight that blackened the fruit from the inside out, tore across banana plantations throughout the world, with only a handful of areas left untouched. As a result, growers were forced to adopt the variety we know so well today, the Cavendish. While Cavendish bananas aren't quite as hardy — and anyone who's tasted a Gros Michel will agree the former can't match the original for taste — it was resistant to Panama disease, guaranteeing its survival.

According to Italy Heritage, Ferrero Group's world-famous hazelnut spread was a way to give Italian workers an affordable sweet chocolatey treat at a time when wartime rationing had made chocolate too expensive for many to enjoy. Interestingly, cocoa prices may also be why Ferrero has changed Nutella's recipe once again.

In 2017, the company admitted to tweaking its formula after a German consumer group's sleuthing into the matter. While the key ingredients remain the same, Nutella now contains less cocoa and more skimmed milk powder, reducing the amount of fat in each jar but boosting the sugar content. Ferrero claimed the change was to improve the quality of the milk ingredients and the consistency of Nutella overall, but fans have not been happy. Without a true competitor, the changes don't appear to have harmed the Nutella brand so far, but only time will tell, and there's nothing to say a tastier newcomer won't try to usurp the king of hazelnut spreads one day.

If you've ever tasted a fresh, locally grown tomato then you already know there's no comparison with the ones you find in the supermarket. Consumers had been questioning the decline in tomatoes' flavor for years, but it wasn't until 2017 that scientists decided to get to the bottom of things.

After testing hundreds of varieties and sequencing their genomes, researchers managed to identify the key compounds that give tomatoes their unique and delicious flavor. Antonio Granell, one of the researchers on the project, told The Guardian, "After the Second World War, seed companies started to worry about producing more to feed people." He goes on to say they discovered, "The flavor got lost because people didn't know what the molecular and genetic bases were, so they couldn't apply them. It was because they focused on quantity, productivity, and resistance." Essentially, the compounds responsible for tomatoes' flavor got lost over time, which is why many of today's varieties don't taste as good as they used to.

If you've never tried Campbell's Soup, you might associate it with Andy Warhol, who ensured almost everyone now recognizes its iconic can. For the rest of us, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup reminds us of sick days, wrapped up in a blanket with a packet of tissues and a bowl of warm noodle broth.

In 2015, Campbell's CEO told the New York Times how it was adjusting the recipes of some of its most popular soups, "We're closing the gap between the kitchen and our plants." In practice, this meant reducing the ingredients list by a third to cut out less natural additives and appeal to consumers calling for healthier products. It's hard to complain when a company listens to the public and makes an effort to improve the nutritional quality of its products, and it's not like the new version doesn't taste great. However, when we associate certain foods with particular memories and experiences, like being given a day off school when we're sick, how something tastes can be more important than whether it's better for us.