One convenience food brand’s change in packaging is making customers do a double take when preparing their favorite snack.
Hot Pockets, the microwavable turnover known and loved by college students everywhere, has made the switch to remove its cardboard sleeve. As of June 2024, per the brand, all of its products no longer include the sleeve customers are familiar with.
Hot Pockets let go of their iconic sleeve
This came as a surprise to one TikToker, @that231guy, whose video questioning if other buyers have noticed that their hot pockets are now sleeveless has drawn over 800,000 views on the platform.
“So did y’all know that Hot Pockets got rid of the sleeve?” the user asks viewers in the video. “Yeah, look, where did the sleeve go? Pause to read, but basically they got rid of it to save 3,300 tons of waste and they perfected their recipe now. The only thing they did was just tell you to cook it like an extra minute.”
Per the Hot Pockets box shown in the video, the removal of the cardboard sleeve allows the company to add more pepperoni to its well-loved savory turnovers.
“After decades of perfecting Hot Pockets, we’ve achieved a breakthrough that allowed us to remove the sleeve, while delivering an even better tasting product,” the box reads. “By eliminating the sleeve, we’re reducing 3,300 tons of waste and improving our product by giving you more of what you love, like 30% more pepperoni.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @that231guy via TikTok direct message regarding the video, as well as to the Hot Pockets brand via email.
What is the Hot Pocket sleeve?
As previously reported by the Daily Dot, according to a 2017 Insider article, the snack’s famous sleeve is actually called a susceptor, and it absorbs microwaves in order to crisp up the Hot Pocket with concentrated heat. Packages of Hot Pockets sans sleeves have been on the market since 2023, when customers were purchasing them even as the brand’s website advised a method of cooking that still incorporated them.
At the time, viewers of another video joked that their hands had not evolved to the method of preparation, as the sleeve provided insulation from the hot food. More than a year later, and on a different poster’s video, commenters have similar issues with the move.
“I always used the sleeve to eat it hand held,” one commenter wrote.
“That crisper was actually effective!” another said. “Cooking longer just makes more spill out of the burst hole and take 3 min. longer to cool down. sad days.”
“I only used the sleeve so I can hold it fresh out the microwave,” a third added. “I never cooked with it on.”
@that231guy Hot Pockets got rid of the sleeve. #whathappenedtohotpockets ♬ original sound – That231Guy
However, many users shared that the change had a nearly negligible impact on them, as they never really used them to cook their Hot Pockets.
“I literally never used the sleeves, you’ve always been able to do it, just cook it a lil longer like it suggests,” one commented
“I never used that damn thing anyway,” another commenter wrote.
“I never would use the sleeve anyway because each time I use that sleeve I end up burning the Hot Pocket so I stopped,” a further user wrote.
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