Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband no longer qualify as “chocolate” after Nestlé updated their formulas due to rising ingredient costs.
Nestlé now describes these bars as being “enclosed in a smooth milk chocolate flavour coating” rather than being fully coated in milk chocolate.
In the United Kingdom, a product must contain at least 20% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids to be classified as milk chocolate. After the reformulation, both bars fell below these thresholds because cheaper vegetable fats replaced part of the chocolate content.
Nestlé explained that the changes were driven by higher input costs but were developed with taste testing and evaluation, and they noted there are no plans to modify other chocolate products’ recipes.
A Nestlé spokesperson cited significant cocoa price increases in recent years, which have raised manufacturing costs, while the company continues to pursue efficiency and absorb increases where possible.
Toffee Crisp debuted in 1963, created by John Henderson, who was the great-nephew of the famous toffee pioneer John Mackintosh.
Blue Riband launched in 1936, named after the renowned transatlantic liner award, by Gray Dunn & Co in Scotland (a Rowntree’s subsidiary). It later became part of Nestlé in 1988.
The price of chocolate has surged as cocoa prices climbed due to poor harvests in key growing regions like Ghana and Ivory Coast, influenced by climate-driven extreme weather and shifting rainfall patterns.
In October, McVitie’s reduced the cocoa content in Club and Penguin bars so drastically that they are now marketed as only having a chocolate flavour, as Pladis opted for cheaper ingredients.
Recent market data shows British chocolate prices rose by 18.4% from the previous year, according to Worldpanel’s analysts.
