Does same baker make Girl Scout Cookies and Dollar Tree knockoffs? We checked

Claim:

Discount retailer Dollar Tree sells cheaper versions of Girl Scout Cookies made by the same manufacturer.

Rating:

Mostly True (About this rating?)

What's True:

Official Girl Scout Cookie brand treats are produced by one of two commercial bakers licensed by Girl Scouts, ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers. ABC Bakers is owned by Makers Pride, which manufactures knockoffs of Girl Scout Cookies under a discount brand called Oven Baked.

What's False:

While nearly identical, Oven Baked uses slightly different — and cheaper — ingredients than ABC Bakers. Additionally, there are two different manufacturers of official Girl Scout Cookies, but only one of them also produces the Oven Baked brand.

A rumor circulated online in May 2026 that there were identical — and cheaper — versions of beloved Girl Scout Cookie flavors such as Thin Mints available at the discount retailer Dollar Tree. 

Users on social media pointed out the nutritional facts of the discount brand and the Girl Scout Cookie brand were identical and even purported they were made by the same manufacturer. 

(Facebook user Melvin White)

The claim has circulated online since at least October 2025, when culinary news outlet Food Republic published an article about the Oven Baked brand Fudge Mint Cookies. 

Snopes went to multiple Dollar Tree locations and found a selection of Oven Baked cookies on the shelf, including the fudge mint flavor featured in the claim. The selection included a variety of other cookie flavors that were not based on Girl Scout Cookie varieties, like fudge striped shortbread cookies (similar to Keebler's Fudge Stripes). 

Based on the ingredients and manufacturer information listed on the packaging, it is mostly true that there are versions of Girl Scout Cookie flavors made by the same manufacturer that are available under the label Oven Baked at a discounted price. 

The claim isn't 100% true because not all Girl Scout Cookies are made by the same manufacturer and not all Girl Scout Cookie flavors are available under the Oven Baked label. Oven Baked's packaging specifies their cookies are manufactured by Interbake Foods LLC, in North Sioux City, South Dakota. 

We've reached out to the parent company, Interbake, as well as the Girl Scouts of the USA, for further comment and will update this article if we hear back. 

Snopes confirmed Interbake Foods is a subsidiary of Makers Pride, as is ABC Bakers, one of the manufacturers of the official Girl Scout Cookie brand. ABC Bakers and Interbake are both listed on the box of the Girl Scout Cookie brand Thin Mints, as shown in the claim.  

The websites for Makers Pride and ABC Bakers list the same address for its headquarters located at 3333 Finley Road, Suite 800, Downers Grove, Illinois.

The Makers Pride website and a news release explained the company acquired Interbake from Weston Foods in 2021, when Makers Pride was called Hearthside Food Solutions. 

Hearthside filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024 and was reorganized into Makers Pride in 2025. The news release about the 2021 acquisition stated one of its new facilities was located in North Sioux City (the location of Interbake).

The ingredients for the Girl Scout Cookie brand Thin Mints and Oven Baked brand Fudge Mint Cookies are listed below. (Emphasis is ours, to highlight ingredients not shared by both versions.)

Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mints: 

ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL SHORTENING (PALM AND PALM KERNEL OILS), COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), CARAMEL COLOR, INVERT SUGAR, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA), SOY LECITHIN, PEPPERMINT OIL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

Oven Baked Fudge Mint: 

ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL SHORTENING (PALM AND PALM KERNEL OILS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), CORN STARCH, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA), SOY LECITHIN, PEPPERMINT OIL, AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

In sum, the ingredients are very similar, but the cheaper brand includes high fructose corn syrup, corn starch and artificial flavors, while the more expensive brand uses invert sugar, caramel coloring and natural flavors in addition to artificial ones. 

Restaurant supply store Webstaurant Store explains invert sugar as table sugar that is broken down into equal parts glucose and fructose for "a thick-as-honey, clear liquid that boasts all the benefits of conventional sweeteners." 

Meanwhile, high fructose corn syrup has higher fructose content and lower glucose content and is generally cheaper to produce, which could be one reason Oven Baked is available at a lower cost at Dollar Tree and other discount outlets such as Walmart and Amazon.

As of this writing, a box of Oven Baked Fudge Mint Cookies retailed for $1.25 at Dollar Tree, while Girl Scout Cookie brand Thin Mints, like other official boxes sold by Girl Scout troops, generally sold for about $6.

The other manufacturer of the Girl Scout Cookie brand is Little Brownie Bakers, which is a subsidiary of the Ferrero Group and unrelated to Makers Pride, causing some differences between the same flavors made by two different companies. 

For example, ABC Bakers' Peanut Butter Patties and Little Brownie Bakers' Tagalongs are essentially the same cookie with slight variation in the ingredients used and the nutritional information listed. 

The official Girl Scout Cookie FAQ explains the variation in manufacturers as such: 

Each Girl Scout council chooses a licensed baker, either ABC Bakers or Little Brownie Bakers, and there are cookie variations by baker. One baker may call a cookie Caramel deLites®, while another baker calls them Samoas®. The two cookies look and taste similar, but the name of the cookie and the recipe may differ. The exceptions are Thin Mints®, Exploremores™, Adventurefuls®, and Trefoils®, which are names used by both bakers. Even if Girl Scout Cookie names are the same, the recipes and ingredients may vary.

The FAQ also stated that high fructose corn syrup was not used in any of the official Girl Scout Cookie brand treats.

Sources:

Updates:

May 14, 2026: This article has been updated to include a reference to the full name of the Girl Scouts of the USA.