But Annies wins the flavor contest (at least with the cheese sauce pouch, not the Kraft dust kind)...
My tip: Immediately after draining, I mix in a beaten raw egg to coat the noodles and make them a tad creamier in mouthfeel - regardless of brand. The noodle heat soft-cooks the egg.
Kraft Mac n Cheese, let’s just say the same cemented consistency it turns into after an hour sitting in the dirty dishes is not far off from the physical state it reaches inside the digestive tract.
Ah yes, those "new and improved" recipes which almost invariably are about improving production costs and not improving taste.
I've started shopping by ingredients label. If I see more than a few ingredients I'm gonna pay attention, if it's multiple lines of weird names I'm just putting it back.
However that presumes the companies are honest about what they put in there. I know from a close friend that's not always the case (and yes I avoid that brand).
It's not like direct health threat, but it's bad enough that it warrants attention from the authorities.
People don't notice the gradual enshittification ... until they do. The problem is that, at that point, they're not just going to switch; they are now angry at your brand and getting them back is going to be impossible.
Or at least, it didn't used to be hard to make. Whatever they've done to the stuff recently, they've actually broken the instructions. It no longer even cooks correctly. Three cooking failures in a row, means I will never buy your product again. Why should I? There's a dozen alternatives. Most are either unhealthy or don't taste right to at least one member of the family, but there's a dozen of them... one worked out.
I'm angry and I'm not going back.
That is the specific problem I get now. The powdered sauce-stuff just never turns into a sauce but instead likes to stay in these horrid blobs full of unreconstituted powder, while half the noodles aren't coated. When it happens three times in a row, with three separate batches/box date codes and different milk/butter, I can cook your competitor's product with no issues, and I used to be able to cook yours so I know I'm not just being dense, that means it's your fault and you're out. Forever. Having real alternatives means I have no mercy for enshittification.
I should probably also note that this is specifically the "Thick and Creamy" variant because the " 'Original' Flavor" got banned from the household a long time ago for somehow being inferior to store-brand generic. Kraft just really does not want our business.
Occasionally they do silly 'heath' things like omitting the necessary MSG from their cheetos, but this is easily remedied.
That's $4.37 per box in November of 2025 dollars, according to the US BLS Inflation Calculator, for a box that was said to serve 4 -- or ~$1.09 modern dollars per serving.
A modern box of Kraft Mac and Cheese contains 7.25oz, and serves 3.5 [WTF?] people, and costs ~$1.24, or ~$0.35 modern dollars per serving.
Maybe if they weren't seeking the bottom dollar at every possible expense, they'd have held onto their sales.