If you’re like me and spend your weekends searching for remnants of old Disney games on the sketchiest websites just so you can relive your childhood, you know how powerful nostalgia is. Another great way to bring a bit of the past to the present? Eating a childhood snack. I swear, every time I have a Totino’s Pizza Roll, I’m transported out of my dorm room and back to a sleepover at a friend’s house in first grade. Lucky for me, Pizza Rolls are still a fixture in the frozen aisle, but a lot of other nostalgic snacks have been discontinued. From Yogos to Jell-O Pudding Pops to Oreo Cakesters (which, thankfully, were recently resurrected), many childhood treats have been removed from shelves, but not from the hearts and minds of the (former) children who loved them. For ‘90s kids, one such treat is General Mills Shark Bites fruit snacks. The aquatic, fruity little gummies are but a memory, but Instagram snack sleuth @Candyhunting reported via Instagram Stories that on March 6, Generals Mills filed for a trademark for Shark Bites. Could this mean the return of Shark Bites? Here’s what we know so far.
Wait…Shark Bites were discontinued?
Well, officially, no…but yes. While there was no grand announcement or public obituary for this beloved snack, there also has been essentially no way to grab a pouch of Shark Bites when a hankering for something fruity and chewy strikes. Some online retailers, including Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger, still have Shark Bites listed on their websites, though the product seems to be permanently unavailable or sold out. However, reviews have been written about the product on these websites as recently as 2021, which seems to indicate that a few boxes were still floating around fairly recently. But they probably weren’t the Shark Bites you know and love.
Back in 2016, General Mills eliminated artificial flavors and colors from their products—and that meant Shark Bites had to undergo major changes. The flavors were modified. The gummies went from chalky and opaque to translucent and sticky. And the Great White Shark Bite (the most beloved of all the Shark Bites) was tossed completely. While fans tried to cling to the snack of their childhood, the modified Shark Bites just didn’t have the same appeal. And so it seems the product slowly died out—and now Shark Bites are no longer listed on the General Mills products page.
But perhaps the trademark filing indicates Shark Bites are bouncing back from extinction! Will they be more like the fruit snacks we loved all those years ago? Only time will tell. In the meantime, there are other fish in the sea (or, you know, other fruit snacks at the grocery store).
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!