USA Today reports that nearly every American household keeps canned food on hand, with the average kitchen stocked with about 24 cans. While canned goods remain a pantry staple, plenty of once-popular products have quietly disappeared over the years.
Some faded because shoppers’ tastes changed. Others couldn’t keep up with the competition or simply didn’t sell well enough to stay on store shelves. Whatever the reason, many of these discontinued favorites are still remembered by the people who grew up eating and drinking them.
Hershey’s Chocolate Milk Mix
Hershey’s introduced this chocolate milk mix in 1988, and it quickly became a favorite in many households. While it was made for mixing into milk, fans also stirred it into hot chocolate, blended it into milkshakes, added it to frosting, or sprinkled it over ice cream.
Sales began slipping during the mid-2000s, and Hershey’s discontinued the product in 2008. Years later, people are still asking for its return. A Change.org petition started by Samantha Cudnohufsky in 2017 has collected more than 2,200 signatures from fans hoping to see it back on store shelves.
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Pepsi Blue
Pepsi Blue arrived in 2002 under the name Berry Cola Fusion. Its bright blue color immediately caught shoppers’ attention, and Pepsi introduced it as a rival to Vanilla Coke.
The launch started strong, with roughly 17 million cases sold during its first year. Interest faded quickly, though, and sales dropped to around 5 million cases the following year. Pepsi gave the drink another chance with a limited return in May 2021, but it disappeared again after a short run.
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Franco-American Macaroni with Cheese Sauce
Long before boxed macaroni and cheese became a pantry staple, Franco-American offered a canned version that first appeared in 1939. It promised a quick meal with pasta covered in a creamy cheese sauce.
Many people felt the sauce tasted more like butter and milk than actual cheese, making it less satisfying than competing products. Demand slowly declined, and the product was retired in 2004 after spending more than six decades on grocery shelves.
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Chef Boyardee Pac-Man Pasta
During the height of the Pac-Man craze in the early 1980s, Chef Boyardee released a special pasta featuring Pac-Man and ghost-shaped noodles. Kids loved the themed packaging, which even included an edible maze printed inside the label.
The pasta came in three varieties: golden chicken sauce, spaghetti sauce with mini meatballs, and cheese sauce. While the novelty attracted plenty of attention, the meal itself received mixed reviews, and it disappeared about a year after its debut.
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Campbell’s Pepper Pot Soup
Campbell’s based this soup on the famous Philadelphia pepper pot stew, a hearty recipe made with peppers, vegetables, tripe, inexpensive cuts of meat, and plenty of seasoning.
The canned version lasted far longer than most food products. Introduced in 1899, it remained in production until 2010, giving it a shelf life of more than 100 years. Few canned soups have enjoyed that kind of staying power.
PB Crisps
Planters introduced PB Crisps in 1992, and they quickly earned a loyal following. Each snack featured a crunchy graham cracker shell shaped like a peanut, filled with creamy peanut butter. Chocolate and strawberry versions gave shoppers even more choices.
The snack disappeared only three years later, in 1995. Fans have spent years asking Planters to revive it. After a social media campaign in 2017, the company explained that PB Crisps had been discontinued because customer demand had fallen, making continued production difficult to justify.
Sierra Mist
PepsiCo introduced Sierra Mist in 1999 to compete with Sprite in the crowded lemon-lime soda market. The drink was made with real sugar in some versions and built a loyal fan base over the years, but it never came close to matching Sprite’s popularity.
Sales remained modest, and Pepsi eventually retired the brand in 2023, replacing it with Starry. Sierra Mist held only a tiny share of the soft drink market by the time it disappeared, while Sprite continued to grow and became one of the country’s best-selling sodas.
Ronzoni Pastina Pasta
For generations of Italian families, pastina was comfort food in its simplest form. The tiny pasta, often shaped like stars, letters, hearts, or moons, was a common ingredient in soups and was affectionately called “Italian penicillin” because many people grew up eating it whenever they felt under the weather.
Ronzoni announced in 2023 that it would stop making its popular Pastina. The company explained on Instagram that one of its longtime suppliers could no longer produce the pasta, leaving Ronzoni without a way to continue manufacturing it.
Butterfinger BB’s
Butterfinger BB’s hit stores in 1992 and quickly became a favorite candy for people who wanted the classic Butterfinger taste in bite-sized pieces. The crunchy peanut butter centers were coated in chocolate, making them an easy snack to share—or keep to yourself.
Sales gradually cooled, and the candy was discontinued in 2006. Fans continued asking for its return for years afterward. Butterfinger briefly brought the candy back during the 2020 Super Bowl season, but the limited release ended before it could become a permanent part of the lineup again.
Dinty Moore Meatball Stew
Dinty Moore built its reputation on hearty canned meals, and its Meatball Stew was one of the brand’s longtime offerings. Introduced in 1935, the stew combined beef meatballs, potatoes, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and rich beef gravy into a filling meal that earned plenty of loyal customers.
Over time, many buyers felt the meatballs became smaller and flatter than they had been in earlier years. The product lost popularity and was discontinued in 2016, bringing an end to more than 80 years on grocery store shelves.
Nuteena
Long before plant-based meat substitutes became widely available, Loma Linda introduced Nuteena in 1949. The canned protein was made from peanut paste, soy, corn, and rice, giving vegetarians another meal option at a time when choices were fairly limited.
Vegetarian eating became much more common during the 1970s, but Nuteena never found a large enough audience to keep production going. Weak sales eventually led to its discontinuation in 2005, though many longtime fans still remember it fondly.
Chef Boyardee RollerCoasters
Chef Boyardee found another way to appeal to kids with RollerCoasters, a canned pasta featuring wavy noodles that resembled a roller coaster track. Every can also included mini meatballs, making it a fun alternative to the brand’s traditional pasta shapes.
The product earned plenty of fans after its release in the 1980s. Years after it disappeared, online reviews and nostalgic discussions continue to mention RollerCoasters as one of the brand’s most memorable canned meals, with many people still hoping it returns someday.
Ritz Bits S’mores
For many kids growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s, Ritz Bits S’mores were a lunchbox favorite. The sandwich crackers paired chocolate on one side with a sweet marshmallow-flavored filling on the other, creating a snack that balanced sweet and salty flavors in every bite.
After about a decade on store shelves, the snack was discontinued in 2016, most likely because sales had slowed. Fans never stopped asking for it, and on National S’mores Day in 2022, Ritz released a limited batch of just 300 boxes. The special promotion sold out quickly, but there has been no word on a full-scale return.
Campbell’s RavioliOs
Campbell’s RavioliOs offered a different take on canned pasta. Each can was filled with small, round ravioli stuffed with meat and covered in a rich tomato sauce. The product went through several packaging updates over the years, but its familiar taste remained largely the same.
In 2021, Campbell’s discontinued RavioliOs after manufacturing issues affected production. While the original product is gone, the company still sells canned ravioli and SpaghettiOs with meatballs for shoppers looking for something similar.
Dr Pepper Berries & Cream
Dr Pepper Berries & Cream had one of the shortest runs of any soft drink on this list. It arrived in April 2006, blending the classic Dr Pepper flavor with berry and vanilla notes meant to resemble berries and cream.
The soda lasted only about six months before disappearing from stores, with weak sales believed to be the main reason. Fans received one more chance to try it in 2022 through a limited online sweepstakes, but it has not returned to regular store shelves since then.
Kudos Bar
Mars introduced Kudos Bars in 1986, combining granola with candy-inspired flavors at a time when granola snacks were becoming increasingly popular. Varieties topped with chocolate, caramel, or peanut butter quickly found an audience, and sales during the first year exceeded company expectations.
Over the years, shoppers began choosing protein bars and other snacks that were marketed as healthier options. Interest in Kudos slowly faded, and the brand was discontinued in 2017. Many people still remember opening one in their school lunch or grabbing one as an after-school snack, making it one of the more nostalgic treats from the late 1980s and 1990s.
