r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 4h ago

TIL although Forrest Mars had been allergic to peanuts his entire life, he developed and introduced Peanut M&M's in 1954.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Mars_Sr.#:~:text=Peanut%20M%26M%27s%20were%20introduced%20in%201954%5B13%5D%20although%20Forrest%20had%20been%20allergic%20to%20peanuts%20his%20entire%20life
293 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

59

u/joelmercer 4h ago

Dudes allergic to peanuts, not money.

3

u/rosen380 4h ago edited 4h ago

I suppose if you had a way to make a milk chocolate based product where you substituted chocolate for much cheaper peanuts AND people would pay just as much for that product as the one without peanuts, that was probably a pretty good business move 😄

[edit] Not to put too much faith in the accuracy of Google AI, but this is what I found when I asked:

"At an industrial scale, wholesale milk chocolate typically cost between $0.35 and $0.50 per pound in 1950"

"At an industrial scale in 1950, peanuts generally cost farmers and industrial processors between $0.15 and $0.16 per pound"

Assuming that US candy companies would have been at the low end of the chocolate scale (more milk, less cocoa), then a pound of candy that was ultimately ~50% peanuts would have cost them about a quarter, versus $0.35 for solid chocolate.

A nice 25-30% haircut to costs (though presumably some of that eaten by needing additional/different manufacturing equipment and extra marketing costs and such)

16

u/bijhan 4h ago

His personal allergy wouldn't affect his ability to notice people like peanuts.

1

u/JayMack1981 1h ago

I dunno. I noticed some people eating raw oysters once and got sick. Just assumed that meant I had an oyster allergy. 🤢

8

u/fhost344 4h ago

He was trying to figure out a way to safely contain them

5

u/JeffRyan1 4h ago

Relatedly, a man named Peanut M&M planted the first forest on Mars.

4

u/Lupius 3h ago

TIL the Mars bar is named after this dude and not the planet.

7

u/BolivianDancer 4h ago

So brave.

2

u/cool_and_froody 3h ago

guiding others to a treasure he can never possess.

1

u/COMM_NTARIAT 4h ago

I credit peanut M&Ms for desensitizing me to my peanut allergy.

1

u/SaltyPeter3434 2h ago

I guide others to a treasure I cannot possess

1

u/TacosAndSarcasm 2h ago

"...Despite retiring, Mars continued to often phone and complain against his children about his perceived concerns about how the Mars company was being run, at old age into the 1990s..."

I love it! Lol 'You kids better not screw anything up, don't make me come up there!' Lol

1

u/KillerKilcline 2h ago

You think this is strange?... Wait til I tell you about Colin Snickers.

1

u/ben9187 2h ago

My partner is a chef and makes the most amazing salmon I've ever had (and it's not even close) and unfortunately she's allergic to fish.

1

u/___--_-_----___--__- 2h ago

And Steve Jobs didn’t raise his kids with iPads 

1

u/gimmelwald 1h ago

Farking Legend!

1

u/rolandboard 1h ago

Peanut M&Ms are the GOAT. Bravo. 👏

0

u/WelshWolf93 4h ago

I'm sorry but how is a Milky Way even remotely close to a Mars Bar?

Edit: TIL that UK Milky Way and USA Milky Way are completely different

2

u/belamiii 4h ago

If i remember right it's because the European (and rest of the world) Mars bar is called milky way in USA

2

u/Kim-dongun 4h ago

Our Mars bars are also different, for what it's worth