Why There's So Much Drama Around Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Pretzels

A salty, crunchy exterior with a creamy, slightly sweet peanut butter inside — what could be a better snack? Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Filled Pretzel Nuggets have long held a cult-like status among the grocery store's enthusiasts. This forever in-demand TJ's snack comes packaged in a cellophane bag with a blue label and cursive writing costs only $2.49, and has been stocked since 1992. Behind this beloved snack lies a multimillion-dollar market, a lawsuit, and rumors that the recipe has changed for the worse.

Trader Joe's had used the same supplier for its peanut butter pretzel nuggets for 25 years, Maxim Marketing — who claims to have invented peanut butter pretzels in the 1980s. However, Trader Joe's decided to switch suppliers around 2014, to ConAgra Foods, who had actually been producing and supplying the pretzel nuggets to Maxim Marketing. Trader Joe's realized it had been losing money by including Maxim as essentially a middleman, so the chain went straight to the source instead.

Maxim then went on to sue both ConAgra Foods and Trader Joe's, claiming it was being forced out of the business and multimillion dollar market that it had been an inventor of — the iconic peanut butter pretzels. Plot twist: A man named Bruce Gutterman, who is credited as pioneering liquid peanut butter for ice cream, claims to be the original creator of peanut butter-filled pretzels. In a story that echoes the legal drama between Maxim, ConAgra Food, and Trader Joe's, Gutterman says he created his peanut butter-filled pretzels, Nutter Nuggets, in the early 1980s and brought the idea to Maxim to distribute. Gutterman says the company cut him out of the business, but Maxim denies the claims, according to NPR's the Salt.

The results of the lawsuit have remained under wraps — but it seems that Maxim did not have a solid claim. After the supplier switch to ConAgra Foods and the lawsuit, there doesn't seem to have been any complaints about a change in Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Filled Pretzel Nuggets. After all, if ConAgra had been supplying to Maxim, and Maxim to Trader Joe's, it would have been the exact same pretzels.

However, in recent months, Reddit users and Trader Joe's fans on the r/TraderJoes thread have noted a quality difference. Overall, the main complaints seem to be that the pretzel component tastes more stale, and there seems to be less peanut butter filling. Others share that there appears to be inconsistency between bags, with some tasting delicious and familiar, and others being subpar. These Reddit threads are from within a year, ranging from five to nine months old. So, is it possible that Trader Joe's has changed suppliers again?

FYI: Whether you still think the Peanut Butter Filled Pretzel Nuggets are one of the best snacks at TJ's, this snack was inducted into Trader Joe's Product Hall of Fame last year, meaning it has been voted as a favorite snack by customers every year for at least five years.

Trader Joe's is famously secretive about its suppliers. However, it's possible to do some sleuthing — on the TJ's Peanut Butter Filled Pretzel Nugget product page, the description states, "Made for us in Pennsylvania." This hint is enough to work from — the H.K. Anderson brand, based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, was purchased by Utz from ConAgra at the end of 2020. Remember, ConAgra became the TJ's supplier in 2014. The only product listed on the Utz website made by H.K. Anderson is peanut butter-filled pretzel nuggets, so it's logical to assume this is the supplier.

This purchase only included the brand, and not the employees, facilities, or equipment of H.K. Anderson — so it's likely that changes to the production process or machinery used occurred. This purchase from ConAgra was somewhat recent; it's possible that by the time the new pretzels made it to shelves, this is what would have led to the noticeable changes in the flavor and quality of the pretzels at Trader Joe's.

The ingredient labels differ slightly from the H.K. Anderson brand from the Trader Joe's label; for example, the Trader Joe's pretzels use palm oil, while the H.K. Anderson pretzels use high oleic canola oil and/or soybean oil. It is not unheard of for the supplier to use a different ingredient list from its products for Trader Joe's private label; in fact, it helps differentiate Trader Joe's products, making them still feel unique to shoppers.