Nestle has made a major manufacturing change to two of its most popular products, meaning they can no longer be called chocolate. Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband are no longer classified as chocolate after their reformulation pushes them below the threshold. In order to be labeled as milk chocolate in the UK, a product needs a minimum of 20% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids.
Due to an increased cost in ingredients, Nestle has reformulated the two items, but has insisted they were “carefully developed and sensory tested”. Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband will now be described as “encased in a smooth milk chocolate flavor coating” rather than being coated in milk chocolate. It added that the company has no plans to change the recipes of any other chocolate products.
A Nestle spokesperson said the business had seen “significant increases in the cost of cocoa over the past years, making it much more expensive to manufacture our products. We continue to be more efficient and absorb increasing costs where possible”.
Rising prices of both cocoa and butter have resulted in a number of food giants altering recipes to use more affordable ingredients, in addition to reducing portion sizes.
Earlier this year, McVitie's Penguin and Club bars also had their recipes altered. Instead of a full chocolate layer, the bars now feature what the company calls a “chocolate flavor coating with cocoa mass”, a small but crucial distinction that has forced McVitie's to re-label packaging and advertising across the range.
This is also in response to soaring cocoa costs, which have reached record highs on the world market.
Crops in West Africa, where around 70% of the world's cocoa is grown, have been hit by extreme weather, flooding and disease.
Ghana and Ivory Coast, the two biggest producers, have each suffered several consecutive poor harvests. On the London Cocoa Futures market, prices have risen from around £2,200 a tonne in spring 2023 to more than £10,000 by April 2025.
That global shortage has left manufacturers in a bind. With chocolate prices more than doubling, Pladis, McVitie's parent company, opted to reformulate rather than raise the price of Penguin bars beyond reach for everyday shoppers.