Chocolate lovers brace for bitter biscuit news

If you enjoy chocolate-covered biscuits, you may notice a change—popular snacks like Club and Penguin can no longer be classified as chocolate biscuits. Instead, they are now labeled as “chocolate flavour” due to significant reductions in cocoa content.

Both snacks, produced by McVitie’s, saw their recipes altered earlier this year as cocoa prices surged. This has led manufacturers to adjust ingredients, including using more palm oil and shea oil than cocoa, as first reported by the trade journal The Grocer.

Pladis, which owns McVitie’s, stated: “Earlier this year, we updated the coatings on Penguin and Club biscuits to a chocolate flavour formulation containing cocoa mass instead of traditional chocolate. Consumer testing confirms the taste remains consistent with the original versions.”

Club’s previous slogan, which highlighted its chocolate content, has been replaced with: “If you like a lot of biscuit in your break, join our Club.” Other McVitie’s products, such as Mini BN and BN Mini Rolls, are also now labeled as “chocolate flavour.”

Rising cocoa prices, driven by poor harvests in Ghana and Ivory Coast over the past three years due to extreme weather linked to climate change, have forced manufacturers to cut costs. Tactics have included downsizing products and reducing cocoa content to avoid steep price increases for consumers.

Prices more than doubled last year, peaking at nearly $11 per kilogram in January. However, recent reports of improved harvests and lower demand, as buyers opt for alternatives or reduce usage, have led to a slight decline in costs.

Separately, KitKat White and McVitie’s white digestives can no longer be labeled as “white chocolate” due to insufficient cocoa butter content—though these changes preceded this year. Similarly, Wagon Wheels have long been classified as “chocolate flavour” for the same reason.

A Nestlé spokesperson said: “We periodically adjust recipes to balance quality, cost, and sustainability. Like others, we face rising cocoa prices, which impact production expenses. Where possible, we absorb these costs, but occasional recipe modifications are necessary to maintain affordability for consumers. Final pricing is determined by retailers.”