Big Companies Seem To Be Ignoring MAHA Way, Change Two Everyday Food Items

RFK Jr. quietly weeps. So do I.

Two Big Food companies, enemies of taste buds and healthy guts across America, seem to be ignoring the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) approach of embracing natural ingredients and whole foods. Foolishly, they have altered two delicious everyday items beloved by kids and adults alike: Annie’s boxed mac n’ cheese and Cholula hot sauce. (RELATED: MAHA Split On Whether Trump Admin Is Actually Making America Healthy Again, New Poll Shows)

General Mills, which bought Annie’s in 2014, announced in September 2025 a “delightful upgrade” to the famous mac and cheese that is “even more ooey gooey real cheese.” In typical corporate fashion, General Mills didn’t highlight the real shifts to the recipe in its press releases. The fourth and fifth key Annie’s ingredients, good ol’ butter and nonfat milk, were reportedly replaced with cornstarch, which acts as a thickener but has no protein or nutritional value.

Unsurprisingly, customers and lifelong Annie’s fans are outraged and have less than flattering things to say about the new and “improved” product.

BERKELEY, CA – MARCH 28: Boxes of Annie’s shell pasta are seen displayed on a shelf at Berkeley Bowl on March 28, 2012, in Berkeley, California. In its trading debut, stock shares for organic and natural food maker Annie’s Inc. surged as high as 77 percent to $33.54 per share after an IPO of $19 a share. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The once-excellent hot sauce Cholula isn’t faring much better.

Cholula, acquired by food behemoth McCormick & Company in 2020, has swapped out plain, delicious, fermented vinegar for the fake stuff: acetic acid. They also added “natural flavor,” which is usually code for unnatural chemical(s). Customers are beginning to notice, and they aren’t too happy with the changes.

One Threads user recently spelled out the before and after of Cholula’s ingredients. The ingredients before? Water, peppers, salt, vinegar, garlic powder, spices, xanthan gum. After? Water, peppers, salt, acetic acid, xanthan gum, spices, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder and natural flavor.

WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 12: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. waves during a discussion at The Official MAHA Summit at Waldorf Astoria Hotel on November 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. Top Trump administration officials, executives and influencers gathered to discuss the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda at the summit. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

This news hits me hard. I splashed some Cholula on my hard-boiled eggs earlier, and indeed, something was off about the sauce. I really hadn’t noticed until now. Reddit users hit the nail on the head: the new recipe almost tastes metallic. And don’t even get me started on Annie’s, a staple of my childhood, but just an occasional treat that I will likely avoid.

But not all hope is lost on the MAHA front. In fact, MAHA has the real momentum. Reese’s fans successfully pushed Hershey to return to their old recipes, which were always made with real milk chocolate, dark chocolate and peanut butter, after the company tried to pull a fast one and use cheaper ingredients. Walmart and other companies are phasing out artificial dyes. Steak ‘n Shake has ditched seed oils for beef tallow. (RELATED: Steak ‘N Shake Switching To 100% Beef Tallow As Trump Administration Readies Itself)

I think it’s only a matter of time until General Mills and McCormick revert to the old recipes. In an ideal world, all Big Food companies would stop using highly processed ingredients. That will probably never happen, but they can at least avoid ruining the recipes that worked so well before.