Welcome back to M&M Data Survey. This is our fifth year of collecting data about M&M’s so we have decided to add some new features this year!

First, we are also going to start counting Fruit Loops as well as M&M’s. Many school districts have health policies that would not allow teachers to use M&M’s with their students which made participation in the Data Survey a little difficult. Despite, being sugary and delicious, Fruit Loops are more healthy than M&M’s so hopefully everyone will be able to participate in the Data Survey.

We will be tracking the data using Google Docs which will make the process of releasing new data much easier than the old system.

Since we are starting with a new system for gathering data, we will be starting over completely. Old data will still be available for you to download if you are wanting to work with a larger data set but we hope that you will consider growing our data sample with the new data surveys.

So what are you waiting for? Jump in and get started.

Ready to help us gather data? What to count M&M’s with us?

Awesome!

The process is really quite easy and we will take you through it step by step.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Get a bag of M&M’s. It doesn’t matter what size the bag is but only want to count M&M’s that come in the standard colors. That means no Christmas, Coconut, or Fall M&M’s because they don’t use the standard colors. Sadly, that puts the new pretzel M&M’s out as well because those bags lack yellow.
• Once you have your bag of M&M’s all you need now is to count up the color of M&M’s.

• After you have gone through the counting process it will be time to record that data to our spreadsheet by clicking the Take the Survey button below.

Yeah it’s that simple! So what are you waiting for?
Start the M&M Survey

To start of this year’s data collection, you can go to the Downloads Page and get our first Excel Spreadsheet for the year.

We will collect data through the end of the year.

Flip on over to the Downloads page to download our newest data and to check out our new M&M leader!

Please add your own data! We will be accepting data through March.

M&M Data Survey is going on a short hiatus until our next school year. We will be back next year to collect even more data. We hope to see you around Novemeber 2007.

Pie Chart after the jump…

We recently got an e-mail back. Here is what they said:

In response to your email regarding M&M’S CHOCOLATE CANDIES.

Thank you for your email.

Our color blends were selected by conducting consumer preference tests, which indicate the assortment of colors that pleased the greatest number of people and created the most attractive overall effect.

On average, our new mix of colors for M&M’S CHOCOLATE CANDIES is:

M&M’S MILK CHOCOLATE: 24% cyan blue, 20% orange, 16% green, 14% bright yellow, 13% red, 13% brown.

M&M’S PEANUT: 23% cyan blue, 23% orange, 15% green, 15% bright yellow, 12% red, 12% brown.

M&M’S KIDS MINIS: 25% cyan blue, 25% orange, 12% green, 13% bright yellow, 12% red, 13% brown.

M&M’S DARK: 17% cyan blue, 16% orange, 16% green, 17% bright yellow, 17% red, 17% brown.

M&M’S PEANUT BUTTER and ALMOND: 20% cyan blue, 20% orange, 20% green, 20% bright yellow, 10% red, 10% brown.

Each large production batch is blended to those ratios and mixed thoroughly. However, since the individual packages are filled by weight on high-speed equipment, and not by count, it is possible to have an unusual color distribution.

Have a great day!

Your Friends at Masterfoods USA
A Division of Mars, Incorporated