Walmart Great Value Mac & Cheese Vs Kraft: Which Is Better?

Welcome to Dupe Detective, a new column where I'll be reviewing a name brand food product's competitor product to find out how well it compares to, or even beats, the original.

Boxed mac & cheeses are plentiful, to the extent that The Takeout's list of 13 store-bought mac & cheeses ranked from worst to best covers brands ranging from Cheetos to Cracker Barrel. Only one grocery store product, however, is synonymous with low-cost, tasty-but-not-great-for-you mac & cheese — in other words, pretty much every other brand's attempt at classic, neon orange mac is a riff on Kraft's formula.

Walmart is one of the numerous companies imitating Kraft. It produces both standard and deluxe versions of its Great Value mac & cheese, the former requiring milk and butter to make its cheese sauce, whereas the latter includes a packet of premade cheese sauce, just like Kraft. I picked up both kinds from my local Walmart Neighborhood Market in addition to their Kraft counterparts and compared them all. Ahead are my thoughts on all four products, before my verdict on whether or not Walmart's Great Value mac & cheese lives up to its Kraft inspiration.

I aimed to prepare each of my mac & cheeses al dente, since it's a pasta cooking hack everyone should know, and how I was taught to make pasta. Cooked for the minimum amount of recommended time, the pasta in my standard Great Value mac & cheese ended up with a nice, firm consistency. 

However, that was the only thing I liked about the product. Satisfying firmness or not, its flavor was practically nonexistent, offering the mildest bite of a sharp, artificial cheddar, and nothing else. One box costs $0.64, so at the very least it's hard to argue that it's a bad deal, but there's just nothing going on flavor-wise to actually recommend Original Great Value mac & cheese in any capacity.

Unfortunately, my Deluxe Great Value mac & cheese was even worse. While its pasta was in a fun shape with a bit of texture, the flavor of its cheese sauce tasted actively off-putting to me. In fact, it reminded me of when I determined some Dollar Tree dupes that were better than name-brand and some that were worse, during which I picked up the same off-note in Dollar Tree's mac & cheese. It reminded me of a spoiled vegetable, triggering taste sensors telling me to stop eating it. Maybe it's something of which I'm especially sensitive, but even if that's the case, there was virtually no other element in my Deluxe Great Value mac to counteract that bad flavor.

My Original Kraft tasted like the milk and butter I used to make its sauce and literally nothing else. In other words, it was even more plain than its already-bland Walmart dupe! I was left questioning if Kraft always tasted that way, and it turns out, maybe not — making Kraft mac & cheese the way you remember it requires outside ingredients like Velveeta. For what it's worth, it appeared to be of a larger quantity than its Great Value equivalent, but that may have been a mere factor of a puffier pasta, since both boxes list the same volume.

My Deluxe Kraft mac & cheese turned out to be the best product of the bunch. While I wouldn't quite describe the flavor of its sauce as that of cheddar as advertised, it at least tasted like a mild, creamy cheese of sorts. Even though I attempted to prepare its noodles al dente, they came out a little soft. So, the final product was a little gooey, though that's perfectly fine for mac & cheese. To my taste, this was far from the best possible version of a boxed mac. This realization makes it clear now why Kraft didn't land in the top spot on The Takeout's list of 13 store-bought mac & cheeses ranked worst to best, despite Kraft being the industry standard. Nevertheless, of the four products I tried, Kraft's Deluxe mac was the only one with an even-somewhat-substantial flavor.

If I were generally recommending a boxed mac & cheese, nothing from either Great Value or Kraft would get a nod from me. Between the two brands, however, a Great Value product tatsed like spoiled food, whereas the only one I kind of enjoyed was a Kraft product. So in the end, Kraft wins against its competition from Walmart.

Ranking all four products, Great Value's Original mac & cheese takes the number two spot, above its Kraft equivalent. Since its pasta component was of a solid level of quality, it might even be a good candidate for some of the 12 additions that can turn plain mac & cheese into a delicious dinner. But since I chose to compare more than just the two standard products, Kraft ultimately scored more points, so to speak, thanks to the single-best and third-best products. Great Value may be responsible for the second-best mac, but it's still pretty mediocre, and does nothing to compensate for the Deluxe version tasting so particularly bad. If the only viable options for a boxed mac & cheese are Great Value and Kraft, stick with Kraft's Deluxe mac & cheese over its subpar Walmart dupes.

I bought all four boxes of mac & cheese from the same Walmart Neighborhood Market near my home in the suburbs of Las Vegas. At my store, Standard Great Value was $0.64, Great Value Deluxe was $1.48, standard Kraft was $1.00, and Deluxe Kraft was $2.48.

Nutritionally, one cup of standard, cooked Great Value mac equals 320 calories, 11 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of which is saturated fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 660 milligrams of sodium, 44 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein. The same quantity of standard, cooked Kraft mac totals 420 calories, 18 grams of fat, 11 grams of which is saturated fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 690 milligrams of sodium, 55 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, 10 grams of sugar, and 10 grams of protein.

One cup of Great Value's Deluxe mac, meanwhile, equals 320 calories, 11 grams of fat, 3 grams of which is saturated fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 900 milligrams of sodium, 41 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and 12 grams of protein. Finally, a cup of Kraft Deluxe totals 310 calories, 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of which is saturated fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 940 milligrams of sodium, 48 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fiber, 5 grams of sugar, and 10 grams of protein.

I bought all four boxes of mac & cheese in one trip to my nearest Walmart Neighborhood Market in the suburbs of Las Vegas. At home, I started by simultaneously preparing both standard mac & cheeses in separate pots, per the cooking instructions on their boxes. Since it's typically how I enjoy any pasta I make at home, I aimed to prepare each product's pasta component al dente. Once they were done, I was able try them and compare them to one another at roughly the same time, noting down my thoughts as I ate.

Then, I prepared both deluxe mac & cheeses, also at the same time. Once those were finished, I tried them one after the other, recording my impressions. Then I had some additional bites of all four products to help solidify my pick for which brand performed better overall. My assessments are based entirely on this experience, and not any past thoughts I may have had on the featured brands or products.