Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband can’t be called chocolate any more

Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband bars can no longer be called chocolate after maker Nestle changed their recipes.

To be described as milk chocolate in the UK a product needs to have at least 20% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids, a level each product fell below once a higher amount of cheaper vegetable fat was used.

Nestle said its reformulations were needed due to higher input costs but were “carefully developed and sensory tested” and there were no plans to alter the recipes of other chocolate products.

As many ingredient costs, such as cocoa and butter, increased food companies have altered recipes to use less of the expensive ingredients, as well as shrinking serving sizes.

A spokesperson for Nestle said the food giant 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”.

The change to the bars’ ingredients was first reported by The Grocer.

Nestle is not alone in recent reformulations.

In October, McVitie’s Penguin and Club bars switched to be labelled as as “chocolate flavour” because the amount of cocoa they contain has been reduced after parent company Pladis chose to use cheaper alternatives to the main ingredient in chocolate.

Although cocoa commodity prices have recently eased slightly, a surge in costs over the past three years, driven by poor harvests and droughts, has pushed up the cost of chocolate.

Changing ingredient proportions in food and drink manufacturing due to cost is sometimes called “skimpflation”.

It has become more common in recent years as inflation has increased producers’ costs.

Supermarkets were found in 2024 to have reduced the amount of costlier ingredients such as beef and chicken in their ready meals.