r/southafrica • u/Beyond_the_one The opposite of efficiency, which is to say, justice • Apr 28 '26
News PepsiCo responds to backlash over new ProNutro taste
https://www.capetownetc.com/featured/pepsico-responds-to-backlash-over-new-pronutro-taste/137
u/Grid10ck Nee Fok Man Apr 28 '26
So basically it's going to taste like varying levels of sawdust now, cool. Rip Pronutro.
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u/Wild-Masterpiece-331 Apr 28 '26
Not just Pronutro.
I will avoid everything in the Pioneer Foods range.They wanna feed us the chemical concoctions that they make from byproducts of other industries.
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u/Revfunkyy Apr 28 '26
Just corporate nonsense. Sugar reduction is always just an excuse to use cheaper ingredients and make more profit. The enshittification of everything continues
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u/new-john Apr 28 '26
Just pray they don’t start f-ing about with WeetBix (also a PepsiCo brand)
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u/Gammascalpa Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
This too has deteriorated over the years. Not the same product I grew up on.
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u/Revfunkyy Apr 29 '26
I used to get Weetbix with cheese on to school instead of a sandwich. Its so small now that if you show a knife to it it explodes
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u/ComprehensivePie4441 May 02 '26
Yeah, using weetbix as a sandwich. My mom used to do it as well. Hated it. Did not know it was more common.
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u/Graidrohr Apr 28 '26
"However, PepsiCo has made it clear that a full return to the previous formula is not on the table."
However, I am making it clear that ProNutro as it stands will no longer be on MY table. You've made your choice PepsiCo, now reap the consequences.
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Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/european_impostor Gauteng Apr 28 '26
I literally said "what is that smell?" Smells like window putty or linseed oil. Very strange and disappointing.
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u/hsark Apr 28 '26
Time to find alternatives
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u/new-john Apr 28 '26
Support Proudly SA Brands. Tiger Brands owns Jungle Oats. Premier Foods owns Iwisa (they have a good porridge too) White Star (Sasko) is also owned by PepsiCo. PepsiCo owns the following (and more)
• Simba • Liqui Fruit • Lipton Ice Tea • Soon to own Twizza • Weetbix (and all Bokomo products) • Wellingtons • Spekko
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u/Separate_Hold9436 May 02 '26
Jungle oats removed strawberry and choclate easg oats, the two best flavors? Who tf wants apple cinnamon oats not me. They just as dillusional.
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u/MittonMan Apr 28 '26
Futurelife. RIP your wallet though :(
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u/SaviorSyndrome Apr 28 '26
The new pronutro resembles futurelife in taste and that’s what people hate about it.
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u/Flux7777 Apr 28 '26
Future life costs pretty much the same as pronutro if you stick to the portion sizes
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u/tno2007 Apr 29 '26
Futurelife is not a filling breakfast. You are literally hungry 30mins after you ate it. Its pure marketing to make it seem like a great cereal. It's criminal to even consider it a cereal, in my opinion.
I think WheatBix is the only wheat cereal still viable.
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u/whitespacesucks Apr 28 '26
South Africans managed to pressure Nestle into changing 2 min noodles back when they fucked that up, we can probably do the same for ProNutro.
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u/cocoloco_yogi Apr 28 '26
What on earth did they do to the noodles? I'm guessing it's the brand Maggi?
I have been on the Thai and Korean stuff since they started imported those brands for couple years now, can never eat those plain thin Maggi noodles again. It is nostalgic though.
I remember mostly having a pack of Maggi noodles pre-dinner when I got home from after school sport.
I know with Kelloggs Rice Krispies they were pressured into importing the original recipe and it is I think more expensive though.
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u/Beyond_the_one The opposite of efficiency, which is to say, justice Apr 28 '26
That is an interesting thought. Which is a shittier company Nestle or PepsiCO? I would go with Nestle, because holy fudge are those MOFOs are evil. But after reading PepsiCO's controversies it seems that might be a close second https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PepsiCo#Controversies
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u/KinkyStonerVibes Gauteng Apr 28 '26
They are well and truly evil. Between potentially killing millions of babies throughout Africa due to their Baby formula push, or their CURRENT water theft/ sell it back to the idiots, I mean customers (Don't get me started on what they have done to the Brazilian people). Nestle is one of the most evil companies on the planet, I actively boycott them on the daily (and no, it's highly impractical and not always possible).
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u/BeanKiara28 Apr 28 '26
Indomie noodles are befok!! The fact Nestle brought it back without changing the 2 minute part to instant was wild… Lied to twice times even under duress!But they sure did show well fuck yoo too because not only is indomie noodles life changing to your instant noodle game it is imported yet cheaper than Maggi and her witchcraft lies… if we are going to be offended about noodles the audacity of Kellogs even charging for theirs should be catching the actual strays here🙄
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u/Abysskitten Landed Gentry Apr 28 '26
Add a spoon of Simple Truth peanut butter to hot and spicy indomie noodles during the final 30 seconds of cooking time. Thank me later.
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u/BeanKiara28 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
yeeeeeeeees!!! love crunchy peanut butter in my noooorels to make it mos 5 star posh and add at least some nutrional value😂 If im feeling bougee I buy Kewpie Mayo (from the Golden rose take away up the road because PnP sell it but charges almost R60 more for doing the effort of having it😂) and add that… I cant even eat other Mayo since Kewpie hit mah taste buds a few years ago… another thing that I loved and just tjooop gone was Skippy Peanut butter… they dont want us to be happy😭😂
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u/Evergreenthumb Apr 28 '26
Lol, but we didn't manage to pressure kellogs to bring back the classic rice krispys
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u/White_Klover Apr 28 '26
Amazingly , other countries have OG rice crispies an coco pops. Been trying to get somebody to bring me a box of coco pops back from Saudi or the uk
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u/Court_Jester30 Western Cape Apr 28 '26
We'll decide for you.
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u/SA_Swiss Afrikaans - not in SA Apr 28 '26
"Here is a shitty product"
"It will get better over time"
So really when you compare it to the original it is shit, but compared to the first replacement it is much better.
FML
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u/_AngryBadger_ KwaZulu-Natal Apr 28 '26
I don't bother with ProNutro or Future Life. Too expensive. I buy instant mielie meal, the White Star has the least sugar of the ones I've looked at. And cooking oats. Then I make my own stuff, add some peanut butter, make it with half milk half butter milk. Make cooked oats, over night oats. You can do a lot with them.
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u/Historical_Muscle668 Tribulation Tough — Born SA Strong Apr 28 '26
Jungle Oats takes only three minutes to cook. Then you can switch off the heat and let it stand, until ready to eat. And it keeps you full for a long time.
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u/_AngryBadger_ KwaZulu-Natal Apr 28 '26
Yeah and you can add so much to them, plus they're cheap compared to these other things. I like to do overnight oats as well, with half milk, half butter milk, peanut butter, some cinnamon and a little honey or molasses.
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u/Historical_Muscle668 Tribulation Tough — Born SA Strong Apr 28 '26
It sounds delicious. Will try it 100%.
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u/Gammascalpa Apr 29 '26
Tasty wheat also good
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u/Historical_Muscle668 Tribulation Tough — Born SA Strong Apr 29 '26
Tasty Wheat is the king of porridge. We use half milk and half water for the best taste. A little bit expensive, but one box will last relatively long.
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u/Various_Relief_5172 Apr 28 '26
Tasty Wheat is still one of my favourites.
They can take the rest and shove it. The new pronutro banana it kak.
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u/MysteCakes Apr 28 '26
I stupidly always thought that instant maize porridge needed to be cooked so avoided it for years lol. Turns out you just add milk or water and it works just like Pronutro lol.
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u/Beautiful_Path6215 Apr 28 '26
I think there are enough alternatives actually. They can go bankrupt with their snooty attitude. So rude.
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u/Tax_pe3nguin Aristocracy Apr 28 '26
PepsiCo. Bankrupt.
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u/Historical_Muscle668 Tribulation Tough — Born SA Strong Apr 28 '26
If Beyers can do it, there is hope for PepsiCo.
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u/SignalRecord3204 Apr 28 '26
They came for Maltabella, and I said nothing…
They came for ProNutro, and I said nothing…
They came for me and there was no one left to fight for me!
(Apologies to Martin Niemöller)
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u/AgtNulNulAgtVyf Redditor for a month Apr 28 '26
US food conglomerate buys local company, enshittifies product. Shocker, this never happens.
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u/Nuts64 Apr 28 '26
Monopolies and the like are deaf to the consumer. When PepsiCo get this fixed I will consider buying again. However, given the attitude, I am looking for a non multinational company alternative.
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u/Caesar_35 Apr 28 '26
Can't stand when companies change formulas. I remember coco pops became unbearable some years ago too.
Charge me whatever you need to, just give me the same good tasting food that I've enjoyed my whole life instead of something that tastes like stale dirt.
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u/omegadash Apr 28 '26
Now they're patching cereals, I wonder if they'll give us a roadmap
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u/Inner-Improvement970 Apr 28 '26
Spoke to the PNP manager and he says that sales have dropped off - plus quite a few returns.
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u/DadGamer77 Hadeda pie Apr 28 '26
Damn straight, ProNutro is a SA staple food -- DON'T MESS WITH IT!
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u/BeanKiara28 Apr 28 '26
I stopped caring about cereal when froot loops went from looking like it was made in a columbian warehouse that made cocain same time and cocopops started tasting like back handed depression I didn’t know I needed with the whole “Lets reduce Sugar in everything” to make people too moeg to care for all the other kak going on we dont fix….
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u/sharingdork Apr 28 '26
The quality diff is too large to ignore. You can see it's different. And taste it's different. And the different isn't good.
Having something you used to enjoy on the regular become enshittified, it sucks.
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u/BeanKiara28 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
When I was younger my parents could only afford the lekker cereal on payday the rest of the time it was pap or oats and I hated it so much Id rather get to school now anorexic before the first bell even rang and almost decomposing by eerste pouse and I said one day when im older and make the grocery rules with my own money I am eating froot loops everyday… Imagine just for them to pull that kak when that day was possible, they dont just take your sugar for no reason other than making sure you are moeg from the get go they sommer steal your. Childhood goals to make extra sure… something is going on beween Illovo’s toxic relationship with the government/ PepsiCo and woolies because the amount of OG things being changed/rebranded is some methhead bullshit. Imagine if we edited our PAYE they way they do these recipes🧐
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u/DadGamer77 Hadeda pie Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
That's a weaksauce explanation, Bokomo.
Fix it. Just fucking fix it.
And bring back the chocolate! WTF, taking it off the shelf is bone-headed.
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u/MalemasMucusPlug Apr 28 '26
Pro-capitalist demographic is upset with the natural outcomes of capitalism.
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u/Separate_Hold9436 23d ago
Well the outcome of capitalism is that we get to not buy it and then another better and potentially cheaper product comes along and we buy that instead. Like how they removed strawberry and choclate oats from the tiger brand in checkers and now I'm buying it at woolworths because why the f would someone remove choclate and strawberry oats and promote apple cinnamon ???
Communism would mean the government decides who does what and not the corporations in competition, oh boy how that would end, same as Eskom which is communistic since there's no competition and it being government controlled.
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u/MalemasMucusPlug 23d ago
Whatever delusions help you get through the day, buddy.
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u/Separate_Hold9436 23d ago edited 23d ago
Loved the part where you made factual statements, probably dont even know what communism is. Go ask North Korea.
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u/Top_Bluebird_2232 Apr 28 '26
RIP Pro Nutro. Destroyed by greed. PepsiCo Execs can smear it over each others arseholes, that’s all it’s good for in its current state.
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u/Gold-Satisfaction614 Redditor for 10 days Apr 29 '26
Also: aging infrastructure should never be an excuse for a multinational corporation.
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u/Beyond_the_one The opposite of efficiency, which is to say, justice Apr 29 '26
It is just an excuse, because if they said the reality which is price gouging, enshittification the backlash would be way worse.
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u/Various_Relief_5172 Apr 28 '26
Tasty Wheat is my go to. ProNutro has alway tasted like regurgitation to me.
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u/Jellyfish-Radiant Aristocracy Apr 28 '26
Make cereal great again, the fall off of breakfast options deserves a whole commission of enquiry!
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u/new-john Apr 28 '26
Support Proudly SA Brands, buy Jungle products from Tiger Brands.
White Star is owned by Sasko, Sasko is owned by PepsiCo.
Iwisa Porridge is also good. Iwisa is owned by Premier Foods, who is also proudly SA.
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u/RgCrunchyCo Apr 28 '26
Never let an American company buy out your national food companies. They cut corners on everything, trying to squeeze out and extra buck. They’ve destroyed Cadbury’s, HP sauces etc … another reason to hate America.
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u/Gold-Satisfaction614 Redditor for 10 days Apr 29 '26
The moment it stopped being what it was originally meant to be - an affordable and easy to produce food source for the poor - and started being a luxury item, that's when I stopped buying it.
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u/Gammascalpa Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Taystee Wheat folks. Make it the way you like. Takes two min. Add a pinch of salt, cardamom, cinnamon and a bit of maple syrup. Much better than that sugary cereal crap and also it’s homegrown rather than shipping your money off to the imbeciles in the USA.
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u/BullishOnEverything Apr 28 '26
Surprised how much people care about mass-produced processed food
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u/cape911 Apr 28 '26
Principle. It doesn't matter what the product is, it's the principle of it all. Started with one reason, now it's another. People can be upset about it. You, however, don't have to comment about something you don't care about, or one that doesn't affect you (yet) – especially if you can't see that this is another exercise in corporate greed, which has never been good for the people – regardless of the production or process. If this goes unchallenged on a classic SA product, nothing is safe. Principle.
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u/SaviorSyndrome Apr 28 '26
Did you ever get an official Asperger’s diagnosis or is everyone that you know just left to suspect that it’s the case?
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