In the good old days, Ritz crackers were the defacto standard in cheese delivery devices all across America. But if you have noticed, in the past few years, Ritz crackers essentially fall apart and crumble in your hands.
Why is that?
Something changed, but Nabisco isn’t telling us what it is, but the struggle is real. Most of the time, these days, the crackers don’t even make it out of their wrappers unscathed and crumbling. God forbid if you try to dunk into peanut butter or cheese, the crumble immediately upon impact.
Food blogger site “So Yummy” suspects a ninja recipe change over at the factory.
User stratosplay chimed in to confirm, saying, “This is a byproduct of lowering the moisture count in the crackers. It makes the shelf-life longer, but they crumble easier. Source: I was a Cracker Baker.”
The change didn’t go unnoticed several years ago by longtime fans of the cracker.
“I just did a search on brittle Ritz crackers and found this blog. I totally agree that over the last 6-12 months something has changed. I noticed that they just fall apart at the touch. I can’t even butter them. Some suggested trans-fat as the issue, I don’t know but I’m going to have to do some research for an alternative replacement. Does anyone some other options for Crackers with a similar sweet taste?” one person wrote.
“I’ve always loved Ritz crackers but I’ve been very disappointed in them recently. There is always a bunch of broken crackers in each sleeve, they seem to be thinner and they break in half if you put anything on them! If it’s about saving money, jack the price up and make them like they used to be,” another added.
We confirmed. We bought two new boxes of Ritz crackers, the original and one garlic butter flavored box. We found the original recipe version was brittle, airy, and in many cases disintegrated upon touch alone. The garlic butter-flavored crackers held their shape and didn’t crack as easy, so that could be a short-term fix for fans of Ritz.
