Hostess Brands
reviews and complaints

My all-time favorite delicacy from Hostess is Ding Dongs. After being away from it for over a year, I bought it from King Sooper to indulge in these traditional cakes. After discovering that it tasted strange, I looked up the ingredients and discovered that Hostess had successfully shifted from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup! I ate three of them and was unwell the following day. I felt weak, had a headache the next day, and was sick to my stomach. I found it hard to accept that Ding Dongs were causing adverse effects. Perhaps it came from something else I ate, I reasoned. I therefore abstained from eating three cakes for a week, and the same side effects occurred! Why were you unable to use sugar as a traditional receipt? There is absolutely no reason and no excuse to use HFCS instead of pure cane sugar! There is evidence to support the claim that HFCS causes illness and obesity in humans!

Ding Dongs purchased from Amazon in August of 2023 had a very strong chemical taste and smell. Not sure what additional information you need for this to be considered an actual complain, but I feel my health and well being may be in danger due to one of your products. That you have no way to contact you on a Sunday is unacceptable, especially considering the huge number of these "chemical flavor/smell" issues posted online.

I purchased a box 10 hostess dingdong‘s Saturday Aug 26 from my local Walmart grocery store. The first hostess dingdong I ate was fine and tasted normal however on Tues Aug 28, I bite into another ding dong. Immediately after I bit into the dingdong, a strong chemical gas smell came from it. I am mediately, brushed my teeth, rest my mouth and wrapped the hostess in a sandwich pack. The smell from the dingdong was so intense. It gave me a headache and throat, irritation. I call the FDA and local Walmart ( no one ever answered ) and hostess customer service number. The smell was so intense I’m confused this actually made it out of the factory .( 140219 ) I think maybe the lot or package number don’t see no other number on the box.

8/29/23

Do not buy, you will be wasting your money. I'm so disappointed. I used to love the chocolate donettes but the no longer taste worth eating. The chocolate covering is watered down and barely covers the donettes. The white powdered donettes have a chemical smell and taste. The package states contains bioengineered food ingredients. what is that? Do not waste your money. I'm done with hostess brand. Buy the Walmart chocolate donettes, they taste good and are actually coated with chocolate, a thick layer of chocolate. Any other brand would probably be better than hostess. Soooo disappointed.

8/25/2023 I opened a Zinger and it was stale. It was hard and the icing inside was yellow. This is not the first complaint i have submitted to hostess about there product. I have on several occasions bought something and it has seemed to be old and not as tasty. If someone can contact me to resolve this issue i would really appreciate it. Thank you and have a great day.

Johnny Dobbs

8-22-23

Disappointing bite, spit out your mouth stale!

This must of been on shelf for very long time. The code is unreadable. What’s going on with this company? Its not the first time bought stale products from hostess. Need to watch over distributors that are raking in the cash leaving expiring products on shelves! Spoke with employee that wasn’t surprised. A lot of complaints. No more chance taking, hostess is a no more purchase in my house hold!

I bought a box on August 13th,but I didn't open it until last night. Everything looked normal until I opened the wrapper. It had an old,rotten smell. I thought maybe I was imagining it. I took a bite, and it was firm,not soft. The taste was awful. It tastes dry and rotten. They don't expire until October but something is wrong with it. I don't have a receipt but have included pictures of the box.

my name is Trashon young. I purchased hostess powdered donettes for my daughter on 8/9/2023 at a Walmart location. the bag was sealed completely but when we got home she opened them and told me it smelled weird. so I took a whiff and the entire bag smells like a nail salon. it smells like someone poured a bottle of nail polish remover in the bag. the product is still in date and has no signs of spoilage whatsoever. we are huge fans of hostess products so to experience this issue is extremely disappointing. i would love to continue to be a huge fan. please email me with a response at [protected]@gmail.com

I bought a box 20 muffins/5pouches/4 muffins per pouch, each pouch was to contain 4muffins.

3 of the five packages contain only 3 muffins instead of 4. They were completely sealed.

They were purchased at a local grocery store. There much be a glitch in packaging as this has happened twice before. This box had the most missing, so that is why I’m finally writing.

This morning I bought a pack of your powdered donuts. Visually they looked like nothing was wrong. I opened them and started to eat them. In the first bite I noticed that they had a VERY odd taste for a powdered donut. Then I noticed that there was mold fuzz growing on them. I looked at the package and it says the expiration date is 08/15/2023 today is only 08/11/2023.

Those who did not grow up on hostess Twinkies cupcakes and Ho Ho's do not know the difference but hostess has cheapened their product with their ingredients they raise their prices 40% and if they shrink their product anymore I'll be able to put it in my back pocket talk about a big rip off hostess you've gone from a five-star rating with me down to a two star you're not worth buying I look at the ingredients today you've keeping the product you've cheapen the ingredients you're not the same company

I remember growing up and loved eating Ding Dongs I haven’t eaten these in a long time. So I decided to buy them today. Right off the bat they are definitely smaller. As soon as I eat into one I immediately tasted an awful chemical taste and smell. I had to [censored] it out, it took a little while for me to get rid of that awful taste. I definitely will not be being these again!

Bought Variety Pack at Sam's Club on 06/22/23. Twinkies have a bad taste, and bad smell, and still have 11 left in box, nothing wrong with the Ding Dongs. Would like the Twinkies replaced. Items were kept in cool dry place, expiration date on wrapper is Aug 01,2023. UPC is following # [protected] 2 on club box. UPC # on Twinkie box [protected] 4.

I have been buying the Hostess Danish cases at Sam's Club for awhile now. These last few cases (the variations of Danish) have had different issues with - either they're smaller than ones in other boxes or this last case ALL the "Blueberry " ones are way way over cooked and NO cream cheese in them! Up until the last month or so I haven't had issues but this is RIDICULOUS! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOUR PRODUCTS? You can see the difference between the 2 - the blueberry are dry burned in my opinion and are super small!

Purchased a 4 box bundle from Sams on July 15, 2023. So far 2 packages of muffins have contained 3, not 4 muffins. Each package says it contains 4 muffins with a weight of 47 g. The 2 packages in question weighed in at just 33 g. each.

Prices are high enough these days and I feel like we are being deceived even further when the count/weight isn't what the package claims. Very disappointing!

Jeanne Hogenkamp

2043 St Madeleine Dr

O Fallon, Mo 63368

Last Wednesday, July 12th, My boss opened up a 3 pack of the chocolate mini donuts and said " OMG I just bit into a Worm! " I thought she was kidding as I had just opened up the box that morning. then she showed me and Yep there were a couple of small white worms. I have a case # 553655. Its been a week now and yet this damn Worm and these donuts are still sitting on my desk waiting for YOUR people to send me something because they apparently do not believe me. I sent pictures, all the information on the box, everything they asked.

I'm so upset because I feel I've done all they asked and got nothing in returned.

I just bought a pack of your Donettes 10.75 oz chocolate frosted. They where stale and inedible. Upon further inspection the date of which the product should have been sold and or removed from the shelf was December seventh 2021. The product was bought at Arby's express here in Easton PA at around 11:15 AM this day of July 18 2023. I bought these for my wife and she tried to eat one of the Donettes and was saddened to find that they were stale

I bought a package of hostess raspberry zingers in july 11,2023

They had an awful after taste that wouldn’t go away after drinking a cold glass of milk

My mouth was left feeling there was a film remaining on it.

I have been a hostess fan all of my

I am now 51 yrs old

Seems like the quality has gone down hill somehow after hostess went bankrupt in 2015 products were removed from the market shelves entirely then brought back like the formulas with new company are different since the changes

The tastes aren’t the same and residue are left in mouths after eating

Who doesn’t enjoy a fresh hostess snack treat with cold glass of milk

Me because the quality isn’t there

Bummer

I purchased a package of your jumbo donettes today with the expiration date of 07/26/2023. I ate one of the donettes and thought hmmm this tastes weird. I get home and grab the other donette and it's covered in mold. I still have the donette and I am waiting for my lawyer to call me back. How would you like to proceed. I am more than likely going to the hospital

At 10:30 pm I went to Walmart, and bout some ding don't, well I'm not sure what you are putting in your ding dong but there is a very weird substance in them. I'm saving these ones I bought and reporting them to the FDA, It's like a fine silver metal. It's disgusting. I love ding don't but these ones have some weird substance in them, they look different, texture is different and has made me sick.