M&M's Alternatives
Following the test of cola alternatives here's another test of alternatives to popular consumable product – M&M's.
In France every big shop network will have its own version of peanuts in chocolate.
Bands and shop network/company tested:
- PICK N' CHOC (Carrefour)
- PEANUT & CHOC (Intermarche)
- CHOCO PEANUT (E.Leclerc)
- M&M's (Mars, Incorporated)
Price and Weight
Price and weight comparison:
| Brand | Weight (g) | Price (EUR) | Price per 100 g (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PICK & CHOC | 250 | 1,50 | 0,60 |
| PEANUT & CHOC | 300 | 1,52 | 0,51 |
| CHOCO PEANUT | 300 | 1,41 | 0,47 |
| M&M's | 330 | 2,22 - 2,52 | 0,67 - 0,76 |
The cheapest are CHOCO PEANUT from E.Leclerc. We can see that the price difference between cheapest M&M's and CHOCO PEANUT is 30%, for other products the difference shrinks to around 10%.
Colour Count and Comparison
Colour count:
| Brand | Brown | Blue | Green | Red | Orange | Yellow | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PICK & CHOC | 10 | 14 | 23 | 17 | 23 | 28 | 115 |
| PEANUT & CHOC | 18 | 15 | 16 | 12 | 14 | 21 | 96 |
| CHOCO PEANUT | 59 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 21 | 18 | 120 |
| M&M's | 21 | 29 | 18 | 24 | 32 | 15 | 139 |
Count normalised (per 100 g):
| Brand | Brown | Blue | Green | Red | Orange | Yellow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PICK & CHOC | 4,0 | 5,6 | 9,2 | 6,8 | 9,2 | 11,2 |
| PEANUT & CHOC | 6,0 | 5,0 | 5,3 | 4,0 | 4,7 | 7,0 |
| CHOCO PEANUT | 19,7 | 3,3 | 1,0 | 3,0 | 7,0 | 6,0 |
| M&M's | 6,4 | 8,8 | 5,5 | 7,3 | 9,7 | 4,5 |
| Total | 36 | 23 | 21 | 21 | 31 | 29 |
It's interesting to note that CHOCO PEANUT has mostly brown sweets. Rarest colour is green and red, most popular is brown (this is skewed by CHOCO PEANUT), second most popular is orange.
Weight normalisation (rounded):
| Brand | Weight (g) | Count | Count per 100 g | Avg weight (g) per unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PICK & CHOC | 250 | 115 | 46 | 2,2 |
| PEANUT & CHOC | 300 | 96 | 33 | 3,0 |
| CHOCO PEANUT | 300 | 120 | 40 | 2,5 |
| M&M's | 330 | 139 | 42 | 2,4 |
PICK & CHOCK has smallest, by weight, sweets and PEANUT & CHOC the biggest.
Taste
All three cheap versions of M&M's tasted very similar as well as M&M's at the very beginning (the sweet outer shell). One noticeable difference is M&M's have a better roasted peanuts thus giving them slightly richer (~better) taste. Otherwise they all taste very similar, sweet and crunchy.
Ingredients Comparison
Ingredients list:
| PICK N’ CHOC | PEANUT & CHOC | CHOCO PEANUT | M&M's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar | Sugar | Sugar | Sugar |
| Peanuts 23% | Peanuts | Peanuts 23% | Peanuts |
| Cocoa pulp | Cocoa pulp | Cocoa pulp | Cocoa pulp |
| Powdered whole milk | Powdered whole milk | Powdered whole milk | Powdered whole milk |
| Cocoa butter | Cocoa butter | Cocoa butter | Cocoa butter |
| Starch | |||
| Palm fat | |||
| Glucose syrup | |||
| Dried skim milk | |||
| Emulsifier: soy lecithin | |||
| Lactose | Lactose (milk) | Lactose | Lactose |
| Rice starch | Rice starch | Rice starch | Stabiliser: Arabic gum |
| Emulsifier: sunflower lecithin | Emulsifier: sunflower lecithin | Emulsifier: sunflower lecithin | Shea fat |
| Milk fat | |||
| Maltodextrin | Maltodextrin | Maltodextrin | Dextrin |
| Glucose syrup | Glucose syrup | Glucose syrup | |
| Colourant: betanin, curcumin, carotene, vegetable carbon | Colourant: betanin, curcumin, carotene, vegetable carbon | Colourant: betanin, curcumin, carotene, carbon | Colourant: (E100 – curcumin, E120 – carmine, cochineal, E133 – Brilliant Blue FCF, E160a – Alfa-, Beta- and Gamma- Carotene, E160e – Beta-apo-8'-carotenal, E170 – Calcium carbonate) |
| Food coloring: spirulina concentrate | Food coloring: spirulina concentrate | Food coloring: spirulina concentrate | |
| Glazing agents: carnauba wax, white and yellow beeswax | Glazing agents: carnauba wax, beeswax: white and yellow | Glazing agents: carnauba wax, white and yellow beeswax | Glazing agents (carnauba wax) |
| Thickening: Arabic gum | Salt | Salt | Palm oil |
| Salt | Thickening: Arabic gum | Thickening: Arabic gum | Flavours |
| May contain traces of soy, other nuts and gluten | Traces of nuts, soy and cereals containing gluten | Traces of gluten, nuts and soy | |
| Cocoa: 25% minimum in milk chocolate |
As we can see non-M&M's sweets have all their ingredients identical, except PICK N' CHOC is slightly less salty. They could even potentially come from the same factory...
M&M's will contain different kinds of fats and uses brilliant blue for blue, which can explain more vivid blue of their sweets. Blue colour in other sweets comes from spirulina.
Nutrition
Nutrition comparison
| PICK N’ CHOC | PEANUT & CHOC | CHOCO PEANUT | M&M's | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy (kcal) | 495 | 498 | 495 | 524 |
| Fats (g) | 24 | 24,3 | 24 | 26 |
| Saturated fats (g) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 59 | 59,1 | 59 | 60 |
| Sugars (g) | 56 | 56,2 | 56 | 53 |
| Fibers (g) | 3,7 | 3,7 | 3,7 | |
| Proteins (g) | 8,9 | 8,9 | 8,9 | 9,8 |
| Salt (g) | 0,13 | 0,13 | 0,13 | 0,11 |
Again, first three sweets look nearly identical, except slight increase in energy for PEANUT & CHOC (could be also a more precise result because of more precise weight of each energy constituents).
M&M's is slightly more energetic, a bit more fat, sugar and proteins.
Same Same but Different?
Based on ingredients and energy we suspect that all three cheaper versions of M&M's come from the same factory, let's see if we can verify this somehow (even more).
Only Intermarche's PEANUT & CHOC lists where they were produced: PIASTEN GmbH; Piastenstrasse; 91301 Forchheim; Germany. They have a website and their own brand of M&M's like sweets - Piasten Big Ben. In Open Food Facts we can find it and... they have the same energy constituents (they don't list fibres).
Conclusions
Three cheaper versions of M&M's look nearly identical and they have comparable (but not the same) ingredients as M&M's. M&M's look more appealing with their more vivid colours.
If they are (almost) the same then picking up the cheapest version is the best choice - CHOCO PEANUT by E.Leclerc. Still, 100 g contains more than 50% of sugar, so they are all not healthy if consumed in large quantities.
One interesting feature of M&M's is they can be customised, which seems a nice gift.
Special thanks to ZK for helping with the article.