Do we like them?

Do we like Kraft Peanut Butter?

Peanut butter brand sold in Canada by Kraft Heinz (Pittsburgh and Chicago). In Australia the Kraft jar belongs to Bega.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. Kraft Heinz has a $62M SEC accounting penalty and a lawsuit over ultraprocessed food. It has also pledged to drop artificial dyes. We'd hold off.

Kraft Peanut Butter is a Kraft Heinz brand. Kraft Heinz's Canadian site lists it among its brands, and an Amazon listing for the 2kg Canadian jar names Kraft Canada Inc. as the manufacturer. The name can mean different things elsewhere. In Australia the Kraft jar is a messier story, covered below.

In Australia and New Zealand, Mondelez ended up with Kraft peanut butter after the 2012 split. Bega bought that business in 2017 and began replacing the Kraft name with its own. Kraft Heinz's Australian arm then launched Kraft-branded peanut butter in near-identical packaging. The Spinoff covered the muddle for NZ shoppers.

K&L Gates reports that an Australian court declared Kraft Heinz's local subsidiary had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and passing off with its peanut butter jar. It is now barred from using that jar design to sell peanut butter in Australia. Not a great look.

The bigger dent is the SEC case. Kraft Heinz paid $62M to settle charges over an accounting scheme that ran from late 2015 to 2018. It didn't admit or deny the findings. Two former executives were also charged. In 2025 it promised to remove artificial dyes from US products by the end of 2027.

Our score is 5. Peanut butter isn't the problem. The parent's record is the issue: a regulator's fine, a court finding on misleading conduct, and a government lawsuit over ultraprocessed foods that it hasn't lost. Some good steps on dyes, but nothing that makes us want to back it with money.