Few things in this world hold a more powerful connection to memory than food. The smell of a familiar dish or snack alone can bring you back to childhood. Case in point: I don’t even need to taste what’s inside; just a look at a Kellogg’s Fun Pak — the plastic-wrapped assortment of eight mini boxes of cereal — and I’m back at my grandmother’s house, where she always had one handy anytime my brother and I slept over.
Kellogg’s still makes the Fun Pak, and it even still has the same assortment of cereals. (Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Cocoa Crispies, and Corn Pops, if you’re wondering.) But many classic ’80s foods — some of the most-popular and most-advertised of the decade — have gone the way of the dodo bird. (Or maybe the Fruit Stripe Zebra is the better metaphor here? RIP, Fruit Stripe Zebra.)
Sometimes popular items vanished from grocery store shelves because they were inspired by a classic ’80s franchise — say Star Wars or Ghostbusters — that started to lose its luster as the years passed. In other cases, the company that produced them went out of business, or were bought by a rival corporation with a rival product. Or sometimes tastes simply changed with the times. 21st century kids don’t necessarily want the same junk food as kids from decades ago. (I can confirm this myself; my kids barely bat an eye at those Fun Paks.)
Here are 20 ’80s foods we wish they still made — even if we could eat them just one more time.
’80s Foods We Wish They Still Made
If you grew up in the 1980s, you surely have fond memories of these popular (now discontinued) snacks.
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