.png)
.webp)
Pillsbury
Discontinued: 1980s
Pillsbury created these chewy energy bars in 1969 for NASA astronauts. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin carried Space Food Sticks to the moon.
Each stick had 44 calories and came in chocolate, peanut butter, orange, caramel, and chocolate mint.
Howard Baumann, Pillsbury's chief food technologist, led the team. His work with NASA helped establish HACCP food safety regulations that the industry still uses. In 1971, Pillsbury dropped "Space" from the name when public interest in moon missions faded. Sales dropped. Retrofuture Products revived them briefly in 2006.
Nestlé sold them in Australia until 2014.
Discontinued: 1993
Pillsbury released these diet bars around 1973 as meal replacements. Two thin wafers with filling, coated in chocolate or vanilla. Each bar had 138 calories.
The company marketed them as "the diet lunch that you can crunch out loud," sung to the tune of "Tangerine." Actress Carla Borelli sang in commercials that "my shape belongs to Figurines."
Flavors included chocolate, chocolate caramel, vanilla, raspberry, double chocolate, chocolate mint, and caramel nut. In 1980, they added Yogurt Bars. Later came Figurines 100s with fewer calories. They competed with Metrecal, Sego, and Slender. After 20 years, changing diet discontinued the snack for good.
Discontinued: Early 1960s (revived 2013-2017)
Pillsbury launched this mix in 1961 with matching pink lemonade frosting.
The box promised cakes that were "cool and tart with a refreshing taste" and "extra high and light." A Deluxe version stayed fresh for three days.
The problem: the mix contained 14.4 egg whites in powder form.
Most cake mixes require you to add eggs. This one included them, making it expensive to produce. By 1961, the angel food cake trend was already dying.
Pillsbury tried again in spring 2013 with a seasonal version alongside Orangesicle and Key Lime flavors. Amazon reviews show the last purchases in 2017.
Discontinued: Late 1970s or early 1980s
Pillsbury sold these flat dough sheets in the 1970s, cut and sized to wrap hot dogs.
Each can had six sheets in Plain, Cheese, Onion, and "Mexican" flavors. You wrapped the dough around a hot dog, put it on a cookie sheet, and baked it for 20 minutes.
They worked better than crescent roll dough because the sizing was exact. Some people added American cheese inside before wrapping. The name probably hurt sales. But people still fondly remember them.
Discontinued: 2007
Pillsbury released these frozen stick-shaped waffles in 2003 with small syrup cups. No sticky hands. No syrup running across plates. Flavors included Buttermilk, Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, and Cinnamon.
Everything was microwave-safe. Perfect for eating in cars on the way to school. They lasted four years. Pillsbury confirmed no plans to return. Fans are still bitter to this day.
Discontinued: Late 1980s or early 1990s
These flat, disk-shaped muffins were made to be heated in a toaster. Pillsbury released them in 1987, the same year as Toaster Strudels.
Think of them as muffin tops in toaster-pastry form.
Thin enough to toast through while staying cakey inside. The company filed the trademark in January 1987 and abandoned it by July 1988.
Discontinued: 2020-2021
This toaster pastry had vanilla custard filling and chocolate icing, inspired by Boston cream pie. Each box held six pastries and sold for $2.75.
When Pillsbury confirmed the discontinuation of this Toaster Strudel flavor on Twitter in November 2021, fans started multiple Change.org petitions. One person wrote, "I'll never heal from this."
Discontinued: 1960s or 1970s
Pillsbury sold this boxed cake mix around 1955. Orange is hard to get right in baked goods. When it fails, it tastes fake. When it works, it makes a good springtime dessert. Little information survives about when or why Pillsbury discontinued it.
The company has killed dozens of cake mix flavors over the years: Chocolate Malt, Honey Spice, Applesauce Raisin.
Discontinued: 2023
This berry-filled toaster pastry had strawberry and blueberry filling. The original came with bright blue icing.
A Facebook page dedicated to the product existed by 2011. Later versions had white icing, which was less exciting. In July 2023, Pillsbury confirmed on Twitter that even the white-icing version was gone. Customers hadn't found it in stores for over a year.
Discontinued: Unknown
This frosting mix was a key ingredient in the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, which won second place at the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off. That cake made Bundt pans a household item.
The frosting mix had some combination of ingredients that created a gooey center in the Bundt cake. When Pillsbury killed the mix, the recipe became impossible to replicate. The current official recipe uses cocoa powder. Bakers say it doesn't work the same way. The Bundt pan's shape, combined with physics and gravity, makes it nearly impossible to create a stable cake with a soft center without the original mix.
Discontinued: Unknown
Pillsbury worked with Hershey's around 2018 to create this product. The pastry had Hershey's cocoa in the filling, the crust, and the icing. Chocolate overload. Before this, Pillsbury made an original Chocolate Toaster Strudel with vanilla pastry and chocolate filling.
That one came back for a limited time around 2015. The Hershey's version went further with chocolate in every part. Pillsbury never explained why this Hershey product was discontinued. It just disappeared.
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)