Whether with cheese, dip, or on its own, who doesn’t love a buttery Ritz cracker? The classic treats came out in 1934, but one customer says they’ve recently taken a turn for the worse.
In a viral video, TikToker BrittBratt513 (@red.cream0) tells Ritz to count its days. She explains that she is trying to enjoy the snack with her chicken salad but something about them is “different.”
“These are not right,” she says. “I don’t know what y’all did to them but these are not right. I know there’s something up with them and I don’t like it. Put it back.”
‘All food is worse now’
In the comments section, viewers offered explanations for the difference and shared other products that don’t taste the same anymore.
“I have an old tin that gives the ingredients…they have changed a bunch,” one viewer said.
“Cheezits too! they taste burnt and greasy,” a second opined.
Another wrote, “Chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies are different, too. I hate itttt. Why are we changing foods!?!?”
Some offered an alternative to Ritz crackers.
“The look-alike that they sell at Aldi’s are so much better than Ritz,” one viewer said.
A second echoed, “Savoritz brand at Aldi are so dang good, much better than ritz.”
User Tracester wrote, “Ritz taste stale fresh out of the tube now. Switched to Townhouse. Lighter, crispier, more buttery tasting, and don’t taste stale. The only issue I’ve had with Townhouse is apparently the stockers at my local Food Lion drop kick them onto the shelf.”
Did Ritz really change its recipe?
The Mary Sue was unable to find an official source confirming a recipe change. Finimize reports that Mondelez, Ritz’s parent company, will be making changes to its ingredients in response to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, which is “is pushing companies like Mondelez to revamp their ingredients, removing harmful additives and addressing health risks of ultra-processed foods.”
The company expects that these changes will come with price hikes. However, the CEO reports that changes will take “years” and price increases will be introduced gradually.
Still, that hasn’t stopped shoppers from claiming there has already been a recipe change. In response to Britt’s video, another TikToker said the reason the crackers seem different is because a key ingredient has been added.
“The newer Ritz have replaced sugar with palm oil in terms of the hierarchy of ingredients,” The Food Hacker says, meaning there is now more palm oil than sugar. She claims the snack “never contained palm oil before.”
She notes that store brand buttery round crackers from places like Walmart, Aldi, and Kroger do not contain palm oil and are often half the price of Ritz.
“Ritz are twice the price and they don’t even taste as nice,” she says.
@red.cream0 @ritz crackers count your days ? Out here RUINING a long time hyper fixation meal ??#ritz #hyperfixation #chickensalad #imdone ♬ original sound – BrittBratt513
She also shows ingredients labels from old boxes of Ritz crackers and notes that they contained malt.
“If you’re looking for a really good butter cracker, look for some kind of malt product because that’s really going to give you that old-school 90s [taste],” she claims.
Interestingly, the ingredients list she shows of the newer box of Ritz does not contain malt.
The Mary Sue contacted Britt via TikTok comment and direct message. It contacted Ritz via contact form.
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