Food Naming Conventions: A Closer Look
Fri, 20/03/2026 - 05:00
With the semi-recent passing of Valentine’s Day and the impending holiday of Easter, the idea of buying and consuming candy like Peeps and egg-shaped Reese’s, becomes more present in our minds. We often find ourselves eating candy as a guilty pleasure, usually excusing whatever the number of calories or ingredients included.
However, some people have been more mindful of those ingredients and changes that brands have been implementing. For example, Brad Reese, the grandson of the inventor of the popular Reese’s candy, has been more vocal about what ingredients we consume and the changes to the recipe that have emerged since the acquisition of his brand by Hershey’s.
For the past year, he has criticized how the parent company, Hershey’s, has been managing the Reese’s brand; that the brand has dissolved into a husk of what the candy used to be. Brad Reese’s main occupation has been protecting the brand identity of Reese’s. Making sure that the original idea that H.B. Reese (Brad’s grandfather) passed down to his sons and then later to Hershey’s, stays the same.
His most recent critique for the management of the brand is aimed at the ingredients used in today’s formulation of the peanut butter candy. The grading of peanut butter according to USDA guidelines advises that the qualities of peanut butter should be: …Good color, that has a good consistency, that is practically free from defects, that has a good flavor and good aroma, that has uniform dispersion of any added ingredient(s).
There are two grades for peanut butter, A and B. Grade A being those scored with no less than 90 points on the scale graded based on the factors above, and grade B for no less than 80. Products that fail to meet the regulatory requirements are required to label the product differently. As a result of the modified recipe, instead of “peanut butter,” Hershey’s uses the term “peanut butter crème” to label the filling. The USDA’s ruling on naming only matters if they use the standard identification wording. If the label has a variation, such as Hershey’s naming their filling as, “peanut butter crème,” Hershey’s does not have to conform to the guidelines for “peanut butter” ingredients. Therefore, the “crème” is most likely a filling made with extra additives such as sugar and various oils.
Drumstick is another instance of a brand that uses a similar gimmick to leverage credibility. We commonly think of ice cream as some sort of frozen dessert made from milk and/or cream. According to the USDA standard, to have the label “ice cream”, percentages of ingredients such as milk fats, solids and whey must be above a certain threshold.
On a basic visual inspection, the brand’s packaging alludes to Drumstick being an ice cream. However, the labeling on the package does not mention the word “ice cream” but is labeled as “frozen dairy dessert cone,” thus excusing it from the USDA’s standards for “ice cream.” The dairy dessert cone sparked an interest online when several users posted about the “ice cream” not melting when outside of freezing temperatures. Other ice cream brands such as Breyers have resorted to changing their product to “frozen dairy dessert”. What differs most “frozen dairy desserts” from “ice cream” are the ingredients. Stabilizers and emulsifiers such as oils, guar and bean gum are added to help the product last longer on shelves compared to traditional dairy based ingredients that spoil quicker.
The USDA has established Standards of Identity (SOI) to help standardize food labeling for situations just like this. The SOI doesn’t cover all naming schemes, as it only protects the exact term of a product. An example would be the above-mentioned Hershey’s use of “crème” instead of “peanut butter” to avoid using the exact term defined in the SOI. Consequently, anything goes if it doesn’t copy the exact phrasing. Searching for these terms may be confusing for an average consumer. A useful tip would compare the fine print of other equivalent products and notice the difference in wording or phrasing. These fine print terms are based off what the USDA finds the consumer to be the common wording.
Although we most likely consume these sweet treats for ourselves in small quantities, across different brands and foods, it adds up. As the saying goes, “Give an inch and they take a mile”. If consumers become negligent of the alterations made to the products they use, these minor changes will eventually lead to substantial changes overall.
Regulations on what define certain standards change every year. The USDA occasionally holds comment periods, times before implementation to receive feedback from employees and the public, about new incoming changes. Announcements on comment periods and other news updates can be found on their website’s news section. Just how a citizen should be aware of incoming changes to the law, it is important for a consumer to be informed about the changes in the products they buy and use.
By Dean Se, Library Assistant
Bibliography and Resources:
https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/peanut-butter-grades-and-standards
https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-food-labeling-and-critical-foods/standards-identity-food
https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/ice-cream
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/sorry-drumsticks-dont-contain-real-144551283.html
