Hostess Brands
reviews and complaints

I've been a big fan of ding-dongs my entire life, all the way back to the foil wrapped ding-dong days, and I have NEVER experienced anything with ANY snack food similar to the one I've just had with a box of Ding-Dongs. I live in Minneapolis, MN and purchased this particular box at the CUB food store in Bloomington near my mothers house. I do not possess the box, unfortunately, but I do have a couple of opened, (half-eaten), as well as sealed, (unopened) individual ding-dongs all from the same box. My sister and brother and law, as well as my wife and daughter, were the first to begin eating them and first was noticed a strong chemical smell. Those of us who really enjoy ding-dongs ate an entire ding-dong in just a couple swift bites and it was already down my throat before I began to notice the taste and the burn. I probably would have noticed the taste sooner but I am a cancer survivor from a few years back and my sense of taste and smell has been impaired by the chemo-therapy I had to undergo. At any rate, that was two days ago on Dec. 11th, 2017 and the chemical-like burn is still so prominent that it is almost impossible for me to eat or drink anything with salt, sugar, or any type of spice. If it keeps up today I am pretty sure I will be going to the doctor via emergency room. It's a horrible dry, burning sensation and I am wondering if there has been any other similar complaints and if I should pursue litigation and retain some type of injury lawyer? I read on the last page something similar that another pair of individuals may have experienced and I don't know how to proceed. If anyone has any ideas or advice I would welcome it warmly. Just from what my family has gone through I am unwilling to accept a return of the defective product to the store of purchase and receive a refund or replacement. We have all suffered, so far, the inability to eat just about anything, or drink much else besides water without a great deal of discomfort. I think the hostess company, (or Apollo Industries), or whomever is at the top of the chain of the ding-dong manufacturing process should look into this with all seriousness and with the sense of urgency it deserves. The experience is far more than a nuisance, it has been a continual source of great pain and discomfort since two days ago when we sampled the product. All are willing to write statements and make video statements which I hope to have accomplished by the end of the day. I can include pictures of the remaining ding-dongs, and I will make video as well, but it is difficult to express the odd nature of taste and smell in a picture or video.

I purchased a box of the Blueberry minis. The bag felt a little light as if all for was in the pack.However when I opened them there was only 2 in the pack. Which the are supposed to come 4 in a pack. Really felt cheated. I really love theses muffins and I eat then for a quick breakfast. I also enjoy the banana nut ones too. Please and thank you for taking my complaint hopefully this can help for next time.

😲 I was so excited to see a Suzy Q. Then I open the box and had one. It taste like cardboard. I was so disappointed. It was nothing like I remembered. Just awful. I offered a cake to a friend to make sure my tastebuds were not out of whack. Well, they had the same response. Just totally terrible. Something was left out of the recipe. Extremely awful.

I purchased this item at Walmart. It was guey and didn't taste good. When I looked in the box there is evidence of roaches in the box. I've bought these many times and never had an issue. Not sure why they are guey as I've never had them like that. Not sure if the roaches came from the factory or the store. Either way, is very disgusting. And not sure if they are spoiled.

I purchased a hostess creme pie chocolate. I work nights so I was eating it in the dark. I had a drink of coffee with the first bite so I did not realize anything was wrong until I took my second bite. Once I took that second bite I knew something was not rite and turned on the light. What I saw was so bad it made me throw up. One whole side of the pie was completely covered in mold as you can see in the attached pictures.

We just purchased a box of Ding Dongs for our grandson today.(Dec.2, 2017)
When he went to open one to eat, the chocolate coating crumbled. So I proceeded to open one also. It did the same thing to me.
Now the date on the package says best buy Dec.15, 2017. They tasted good.
This is just to point out the issue. Maybe there have been other complaints about this problem.
The number on the package is E [protected]:19
Thanks for hearing me.Just wanted you to know.

Thanks,
John

I just purchased a package of powdered sugar donettes they were dry and hard. I will never buy hostess again. They were supposed to be good until the 23 of December, it's only the 3, I would hate to see what they would be like a week from now. E [protected]:12, best by December 23, 2017. Talk about a waste of money. I would like someone from Hostess to resolve this issue please.

Every box I have bought. The last 3 boxes . they are nasty. Hard dry even the cream filling is dried out. I will never buy Hostess again and I grew up eating hostess. I love love love ding dongs. And I have the same problem with them a lot also.. These hostess treats are expensive and then to open up and find them to be old hard and dried up is such a disappointment and from such a well known company that millions of us grew up with . Sad

On 11/11/2017 I went to my Walmart and purchased a bag of Hostess cinnamon crunch donuts, went home and got a glass of cold milk and got my bag of mini donettes and took a bite out of the first one and it tasted a little funny, for some reason I took the donut and looked at it and there was a green mold spot on it, I immediately put the donut back in the bag went to the bath room a washed my mouth out and took pictures of the molded donut.
I'm so very disappointed in Hostess because I've bought this brand for years but I can't see myself continuing to be a customer anymore.

I purchased a box of ding dongs and my grandma opened one to eat it. She took a bite off of it and said it tasted like some type of chemical. And we smelt the one she took a bite out of and it spelt like straight chemical. It was such a strong smell, kind of like it was soaked in something. We opened the other ones that is in the same box and two of the 10 smelt like this.

i bought a single pack of ho hos today that were just very stale, now looking at the package i see they were expired Nov. 17.# on package is 7 E [protected]:41. i bought it at duane reade on 51st ave. NYC, NY between 5th and 6th. unfortunately i will not be near this store any time soon, and was hoping you could help with a refund or replacement item. if not i understand, but more so could you reach out to the store to remove the expired product from the shelf.

Hello, around 20 minutes ago i bought a bag of your donettes from target. I opened up the bag and a very strong chemical scent released itself. I tasted the donuts and they have a horrible chemical taste. I've had these before but something is off with this bad and it's very sickening. I'm just concerned for my health, and for other customers. The taste is very hard to get out of my mouth and i now have a migraine.

On November 22, 2017, I purchased a box of Ho Hos. The expiration date was December 7, 2017. So there was plenty of time to enjoy them. OMG, these were the worst snack cakes I have ever tasted. The box says Now with OUR BEST CHOCOLATE TASTE EVER. Well that was a crock of bull. They were dry and the chocolate icing was crumbly like they were old. I will never ever buy these again. I think that some sort of compensation should be forth coming. A full refund of purchase price ($2.99) or something.

A few years ago, I discovered The Chocodile. Omg! A Twinkie covered in chocolate. Does it get any better than that? Soft cake... sweet, creamy filling. It quickly became my new favorite snack over Suzy Q's. It was a hard decision, but I made it. When our Hostess store closed it's doors for good, I was sooooooooooooooo disappointed. "Now, how am I going to get my fix when Big Daddy (my husband) isn't around and unable to scald me for making poor food choices?" I thought to myself. Well, recently I found them (Suzy Q's and Chocodiles) again in one of our local discount stores. Imagine my excitement on the find and the fact that I was alone to purchase them without feeling like I've committed some sort of crime. I get to my car and immediately open the Chocodiles. When I tell you that I could have cried from disappointment. Dry cake, filling was unfamiliar. I quickly tossed it out after only one bite. I opened the Suzy Q. Same disappointment. "What is going on?" I mumbled to myself. Our reunion was a sad one. Why try to improve on a product that was already perfect? Please, go back to the way we all remember Hostess snack cakes to be... amazingly delicious. Otherwise you risk the chance of losing all your loyal customers.

Well, while shopping at my local grocery store, I spotted the Hostess end cap. I decided to grab a bag of donettes, as they have become a tradition with my 3year old grandson to share with grandma. There was plenty of time before the expiration date, as I usually check for freshness.
Upon opening said donettes, I was sorely disappointed as the little morsels were dry and hard. What's up with that? My purchase was on November 30th. I have not had time until today to send this email.
So technically, I was trying to choke down a little donettes 2 weeks before the expiration date and it was really hard. I of course, checked the bag for any tears or breaks in the seals and there were none. Please remedy this situation so I might continue my tradition of little cute donettes with my grandson. I would hate to have to introduce my grandson to Little Debbie.

I dont know what Hostess was thinking by bringing back the best cake they had and absolutly destroying them. The chocolate cake not only has no flavor but its dry as hell and the cream is so minimal why bother. Very disapointed and I will never purchase them again. Alot of companies bring back items with much disappointment when the recipe is changed and clearly thats what has been done. In the effort of skimping to make themselfs money, the public that knows these cakes the way they were will not be adding to their profits.

I purchased two boxes of the New Apple Streusel coffee cakes. I tasted various cakes from the two boxes I purchased and they all tasted terrible. They seemed as though they were sprayed with an anti freeze based chemical. They were so repulsive in taste that I threw the contents of two boxes in the garbage, except for the three I ate. ( at a cost of 3.19 per box ) Please send me a refund and pull these off the market!

I just bought a one of the new white fudge ding dong and it taste and smell like chemical. It taste horrible and it smell loud. I just bought this pie and i open the package and the smell was loud and very noticeable. When I bite it I had to spit it out and brush my teeth. The smell is still lingering around my home. I was really excited to try this new product but not any more.

I purchased two boxes of Hostess raspberry zingers, one box the labeling was different from the other the word raspberry was in large print on one box and small print on the other… I got home the wife opened a box and put them in the glass cake holder so the grandbabies could access them easily, I came through pick one up opened it the first bite it was as if I had Took a drink of some type of chemical, the feeling in my mouth cannot be described, it absorbs quickly and the taste was so bad that I started throwing up immediately for five minutes or so I was throwing up, we quickly distinguished between the two boxes the rapper had C 20:03 ... good box had B 8:28 unfortunately she had not tip the boxes so as to get a code off of it… They were purchased at the super dollar in Rose Hill VA 24281 it is a subsidiary of food city, I have the one that I bit off of that made me so sick and also three others with the same code, I am trying to find somewhere that it can be analyzed to determine what type of chemical is on this or in this linger…
Larry m Long

I bought a bag of Donettes at my local Shoprite yesterday, they were located at the entrance of the store on sale for $1.99. I did my shopping went home put my groceries away and then last night my boyfriend went to go get a glass of milk and grabbed the bag of donettes. He opened the bag, grabbed one and bite into one...he immediately spit it out and gagged.. It tasted horrible and old. We looked at the date on the package and could not believe it, the expiration date was June 29, 2017, exactly 4 months. How can Shoprite put something on the shelf that is 4 months old? How could they still have them in stock? OR did Hostess ship it to them and didn't realize they were old? How can Hostess or Shoprite even let something like this get past them? I want an explanation as to how this could possibly have happened. We called Shoprite and they said that we can bring the bag back with the receipt and they will give me back my money. No apologies or nothing! So unprofessional! I will be making sure that someone apologizes!

Will expect a reply within 24 hours, NOT 4 months.

Thanks
Maria Valente
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