Hershey is about to start selling dried meat bars

Hershey to begin making dried meat bars.

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

After 122 years of making chocolate, Hershey has decided to try making something else: dried meat bars. In August, the chocolate company will begin selling Krave protein bars made out of dried meats, mangos, cranberries, and quinoa in an effort to appease America's growing interest in healthy eating.

The news of the company's plans to capitalize on the Krave beef jerky brand it bought last year, rather than focus on its iconic chocolate, follows the steady decline in Americans' taste for candy. Chocolate sales have slowed drastically in the U.S. since 2010, only growing by 4 percent. The sale of meat snacks, in comparison, spiked by 10 percent during the same period.

As unappealing as a dried meat bar may sound, Rusti Porter, vice president of marketing for Hershey's Krave, promises it tastes a lot better than it sounds. She says that the company "went through several iterations" to ensure the "thickness, protein content, and sweetness" were just right, The Wall Street Journal reports. "We aren't going out there saying it is a meat bar. We're saying it is a Krave bar," Porter said. "It's not just beef jerky in a bar in your mouth."