DUNCAN HINES- HOW COULD YOU??

This is breaking news from KOSHER TODAY:

Duncan Hines Set to Make Cake Mix Products Dairy
(Cherry Hill, NJ) A line of popular Orthodox Union (OU) certified cake mixes by Duncan Hines will soon switch to dairy ingredients, Kosher Today has learned. The decision will affect the large number of kosher consumers that have been using the cake mixes because they are pareve and can be eaten with meat as well as many of the 56 million Americans who are lactose intolerant. A similar decision by Stella Dora of Nabisco several years ago was greeted by a large outcry by consumers, which caused the company to reverse the decision. Duncan Hines was owned by Procter and Gamble for many years but when it experienced difficulty was sold to Pinnacle Foods, based in Cherry Hill, NJ, which also acquired such well-known kosher brands as Lender’s Bagels. Industry sources say that Duncan Hines decided to add the dairy to improve the quality of the product. The decision by Duncan Hines comes at a time when there is growing demand for pareve products by kosher consumers and by many lactose intolerant people. The cake mixes allowed many consumers to bake their own pareve cakes for use on Shabbat and holidays. Some industry sources were privately hoping that the company would not go through with the change, but if it does, a “D” will be added to the OU indicating that dairy ingredients are being used.