CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - CLOSEST TO HOMEMADE®

Information updated January 2024

Chocolate Chip cookies are on the All-American list with Mom + Apple Pie.

If we were to make Chocolate Chip Cookies at home, the recipe would likely be something like this:

Let's compare this homemade recipe to the ingredients in Chips Ahoy! Original and see which ingredients are Not In Kitchen™ >> items which would not be in our kitchens if we were making chocolate chip cookies at home. (Source for ingredients: Mondelez Snackworks Web site 7/24)

Through the homemade filter, Chips Ahoy! Original cookies contain several things we don't see in a homemade recipe >> ingredients Not In Kitchen including Canola Oil, Palm Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, commercial coloring + commercial + artificial flavoring.

CHIPS AHOY! ORIGINAL COOKIES CONTAIN CARAMEL COLOR: It sounds so innocuous because it sounds like yummy caramel but numerous institutions advise caution in consuming Caramel Color including The Center for Environmental Health. There are numerous indications that Caramel Color is a cancer-causing carcinogen. The state of California requires lower levels of Caramel Coloring in heavily colored items like soda.

CHIPS AHOY! CONTAIN ADDED COMMERCIAL NATURAL FLAVOR: This "Natural Flavor" is not like anything we use at home >> it is from a commercial Flavor House where literally any flavor can be created; think Jelly Belly Jelly Beans:

NATURAL FLAVOR IS NOT ALL-NATURAL: According to The Environmental Working Group, "Flavoring, both natural and artificial, can contain anywhere from 50-100 ingredients. The mixture will often have some solvent and preservatives and that makes up to 80 to 90 percent of the volume (of the flavoring). It still has artificial ingredients."

The EWG reports that, "In a database of over 80,000 foods, 'natural favoring' is the fourth most common ingredient in packaged foods", so, cumulatively, we are all eating a lot of this vague man-made substance. The only three ingredients that come before natural flavor in terms of quantity? Salt, water and sugar.

CHIPS AHOY! THEN vs. NOW COMPARISON: The sweetener in Chips Ahoy! was once only Sugar, now it includes High Fructose Corn Syrup. (Source: Historical Package) The current version also contains some ingredients not found in the older version >> Added Caramel Color, Added Natural Flavor, Canola Oil and Palm Oil.

BTW, the older version of Chips Ahoy! would have also been banned at Whole Foods (if Whole Foods had existed then) because Chips Ahoy! in 1973 also contained Artificial Flavors.

Tate’s Bake Shop (also owned by Mondelez International) with commercial Natural Flavor x2 which keep the cookies from being certified as Closest To Homemade. (Sources: Brand Web sites 1/24)

Newman’s Own Chocolate Chip Cookies are not Closest To Homemade because they do not contain any Butter and they do contain Organic Palm Fruit Oil, Natural Flavor and Soy Lecithin in the cookies. (Source for ingredients: Newman’s Own Web site 1/24)

A NOTE ON SOY LECITHIN: Soy Lecithin is commonly in chocolate chips as an emulsifying agent (so it is not noted as an ingredient Not In Kitchen when it is contained within the chocolate chips), but it is noted above in Newman’s Own as an ingredient Not In Kitchen because Soy Lecithin appears in the cookie dough. We do not add Soy Lecithin to the dough of homemade chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Seen below, PepsiCo-owned Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies contain six ingredients banned at Whole Foods. (Source: PepsiCo Frito-Lay Web site 1/24)

CLOSEST TO HOMEMADE: Following are some Chocolate Chip Cookies which are Closest To Homemade including three Gluten-Free options:

*Neither money nor products are ever accepted to appear on the Closest To Homemade list*

And following are some certified Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mixes which are Closest To Homemade:

Discover more food + beverages whose ingredients are Closest To Homemade in 275+ categories. Neither money nor products are ever accepted to appear on the Closest To Homemade list.

Closest To Homemade® Master List

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