Chocolate lovers, listen up: Some of your favorite Hershey products aren’t exactly what they used to be.

Last month, Hershey said they are now replacing their milk chocolate coatings with alternate ingredients. Specifically, replacing the cocoa butter with vegetable oil in products like Whatchamacallit, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar and Krackel. Cocoa butter is what gives chocolate its creamy texture while protecting the natural antioxidants found in it.

What does this mean?

Mockolate. Fake chocolate.

Apparently, the switch is because of the rising prices of the ingredients, but Hershey is claiming it won’t adversely affect the products.

According to a recent MSNBC article, evidence of the switch can already be seen on the packaging because of FDA requirements of what milk chocolate needs to be composed of. Goods once marked “milk chocolate” now say “chocolate candy,” “made with chocolate” or “chocolatey.”

Now, we understand that with increasing commodity and transportation costs Hershey could have simply raised the price of its candy or even given us less, but they chose to change the ingredients to keep costs the same. So thanks, kind of.

We’re not trying to be too neurotic about the switch, but it’s how they switched the ingredients that we felt was a little below the belt. There weren’t any major labeling changes, no “New Taste” text splashed on the side of Milk Duds boxes; instead, minor cosmetic changes were all that happened.

Customers should have been informed, not misled. Hershey’s chocolate is about as American as hot dogs and baseball. It started in a small town in Pennsylvania and is now internationally distributed. Needless to say, we expect more.

But not all is bad. At least three favorites are being spared: The classic milk chocolate bar, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kisses will retain the original formula.

Everywhere we look we have substitutes in our food — the seemingly ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup, for instance; and Corn Flakes, which are approximately 9 percent corn, for another example — and it seems just a little disheartening to see old classics like Hershey taking this track, even if it doesn’t pertain to the iconic Hershey bar.