Hostess Brands
Reviews and Complaints

These snowballs are normally really soft and good these were very stale tasting and disappointing. I bought at a local Walmart in Houghton lake Michigan says best by January 15 of 2023 they were not good. The package says j11012100305 only had them for about 4 days before I tried them not sure if packaging was damaged before purchasing very disappointing I love these.

Your ding dong bouncers would have been great, except 2 out of 5 packs only had 2 bouncers instead of 3 and a third pack had an open end, so they were VERY dried out and inedible. I bought 2 boxes at Thanksgiving for the grandkids to enjoy. Thank you. I have always bought Hostess products, and was very disappointed when this happened, let alone that my grandkids didn't get their promised treats. I hope that you can fix the problem and restore my faith in your company. If this happened to me, I am sure it has happened to others also.

Purchased at WalMart in Ravenna, Ohio end of Nov 2022. Unfortunately do not have lot number because we threw away the box. Several of them tasted fine. However most of them taste extremely disgusting, like soap or chemicals! The taste and smell is so bad i almost vomited and could not get the taste out of my mouth. They taste and smell rancid. I would say atleast half the box.

The product tastes like chemicals, had my wife taste them, she spit it out. Disgusting taste and smell. Hope I do not get sick. Why is my complaint too short to publish, what more do you need, I have eaten ding dongs for 40 years, they taste like chemicals and the chocolate doesn't even cover the ding dong.

Purchased [protected] at Kroger, holt Michigan.

See photo of codes

I bought zingers at the store got home and my grand daughter opened them took one and started eating so I reached in got one for my other grand daughter and noticed they were moldy. The sale by date said December 6th ,2022. It was days before the sale by date. My grand daughter was feeling ill and I feel you should supply better products. Bought at Tom's pride Starbuck mn December 2 .

The Best By date is good (Dec 7, 2022), but it tasted moldy and the inside texture looked as though it was.

The packaging was glued crooked on one side.

It was purchased from our local Dollar General when the grocery store was out of stock(about 3 weeks ago). I took a bite several days later. The next day I broke one open to see if the one the previous day was just a fluke, but this one was the same. Printing on that wrapper was J [protected] 271X 03:28 1

Hello my name is Vicki brown and I'm writing you to let you know that I will be talking to my Attorney tomorrow about your product because I have bought a hostess apple fruit pie from the gas station called quick stop2 on Columbia highway Pulaski Tennessee 38478 and I actually took a bite of it and it was so, so hard it broke my tooth on top right off and this pie doesn't have no expiration date on it and it's just I'm not happy and now I have to go to the dentist cause of it and if you don't want to be sued please respond with an option for me that you can make it up cause this isn't the first time I have been through this. Thanks

I purchased this Box on Fri. 25th the Dollar General in Joplin Mo 1st & Main store now this like the third time something was wrong with the Zingers but this time some of the packages were open in a unopened box because i now dump them all out to look at them cause they've been stale so often Qualityhas been poor since company change my opinion & i loved these since i was a kid no more tho.

On November 18, 2022 I purchased a hostess Snowball snack cake at Walmart in Boiling Springs, SC. On the second bite of the first cake, I felt something strange in my mouth, it was a stick pin (with a little pearl like ball on the end). I called your corporate office and explained the situation. They took information from the cake wrapper and promised I would receive some free coupons and a label to send the cake to them. I have not received this and am not sure what to do. I have thought about posting on our neighborhood website, but thought I would give your company a chance to investigate.

I recently purchased a package of snowballs and both cakes completely lacked the cream filling. The barcode # was [protected] 6.

The front of the package read as below-

BEST BY: JAN/26/2023

J [protected]

20:57 6

Bought a box of Ding Dongs at Giant foods in Chambersburg, PA. About a week ago. My favorite treat for a long time. Started to eat one and taste is way off. Smells strange and looks like they have some kind of grayish coating on the outside. The outside is pitted as well. Please be aware something was wrong with this box. Not sure if other boxes sold in the area were affected as well.

Every time I purchase these donuts they are Stale, even if the Expiration date didn’t come yet. I always get the The bag. Also there’s only like 10 donuts in it for $3.50. I Don’t have money to waste and I’m highly disappointed. They are so hard I can use it for a Door Stop. Product Number J0929400027207. Purchased at Family Dollar in Mt. Oliver, Pennsylvania

In the past 2 days I purchased Hostess coffee cakes and today I purchased powered donuts for my grandson. All of them very stale! I have always purchased your products as my husband cannot live without them. My new grandson seems to have inherited his love of Hostess. We are a small, working family and as you know, food prices have taken a toll on us and many people in the world. Buying danish is not a priority, rather a luxury. Please help me to understand how this has happened. I know you raised the price and I can’t help but wonder if you lowered your standards. If so, I don’t need to buy your products in the future. It baffles me that it happened on 2 separate days, in 2 separate stores.

I have included pic’s of the boxes

Thank you.

Michelle Borushak

Sent from my iPhone

One of the last ding dongs from a box bought at Sam’s Club in Pearland, TX taste poisonous. I took the first bite and noticed very little cream filling, i continued to take the second bite and something took my breath away and smelled something strange. I smelled my hand that i held the cake in and it had an odd smell. I had washed my hands maybe 30 minutes before eating the cake and didn’t touch anything in my home that i hasn’t touched before, so I know it came from the cake. I had my husband take a bite and it noticed something strange right away! We both brushed our teeth to get everything out and drank a glass of milk. I think if I had eaten the entire thing, things would have been really bad. I immediately grabbed the last one to keep from anyone else in my home from eating it and noticed the package wasn’t properly sealed. I hope to have test done on it to see if it has poison. No more hostess cakes in my home!

Just bought a box of ding dings on 11/6/22 at my local grocery store and when I went to eat one and the smell and taste was so disgusting. They had this strange chemical taste, can’t quite describe what the smell and taste is. It’s a cross between paint and lighter fuel. I will be calling Hostess to see what they are going to do about it. The lot number on the package is G 10:51. Where is quality control? The smell is so strong there is no way factory workers can’t smell the odor.

In of the summer of 2022 , several different purchases. I purchased 6 bags of Hostess donettes frosted mini donuts (chocolate) every single bag the chocolate was melted off the mini donuts. This is one of my favorite snacks and I was forced to dispose of all 6 bags as a result of them no longer having a chocolate covered donut. In this last bag I saw the Hostess Quality Commitment. So I decided to send this complaint in efforts to try to recover the cost of these 6 bags I was unable to consume. I guess we’ll see about the commitment. I appreciate your help in this matter.

Purchased Zingers at Walmart in Gastonia, NC. Opened first Zinger the next day, 11/1/22

STALE! hard cake and looked like icing had gotten warm enough to melt; drooping down side of cake.

Have searched the box intently and can find NO best by date code anywhere!

Please advise.

Walmart 10/31/22 $3.48 223 N. Myrtle School Rd Gastonia NC 28052

TC# [protected] 6

I was eating a hostess ding dong at 5:00 am 10/31/2022 trying to have a quick snack at the same time trying to make breakfast for my family before school and work, and I bit into the ding dong I had just opened in a hurry and the piece I bit into caused a lot of pain , broke my tooth, and made me bleed.. I spit out what I felt in my mouth that caused the damage including the piece of my tooth. What in the world! I can’t believe this just happened! A few pieces of black hard plastic is what I spit out, and the two pieces of my tooth! I took a picture of the remaining piece of ding dong and the pieces of plastic- I didn’t want to be gross and include the pieces of my tooth. But I have them!

I purchased Hostess Ding Dongs at my local grocery store in Mechanicsburg, PA this week around October 21, 2022. I tried to eat one of the Ding Dongs but couldn't get past the first bite. I had to spit it out. The item itself had a strong chemical smell - definitely not a natural baked item smell. An hour later and I'm not able to get rid of the chemical taste in my mouth, and I'm burping up the chemical taste as well. It's almost like I ingested Kerosene.

There is something seriously wrong with the twin pack of ding dongs i just bought. When I bit into it the ding dong I felt a puff of air blast, that tasted VERY STTRONGLY of chemical fumes. My first thought was it tasted like lighter fluid. I couldnt tell exactly what kind of chemicals it tasted and smelt like but it was so strong. I asked my husband to check and see what he thought of the other cake in the package, and to check mine as well. And he said both smelled very strongly of chemicals too. Im very worried of what I might have just put into my body.