Cadbury is struggling to deflect criticism from its Creme Egg brand after it emerged that a key recipe had been changed.
On Monday, The Sun newspaper claimed that the chocolate composition used in Creme Eggs, which are only sold until Easter Day every year, had been “secretly” altered. Cadbury’s owners Kraft later confirmed that Creme Eggs no longer contained Dairy Milk chocolate – their signature blend of 1.5 glasses of milk per 0.5lb of chocolate – but denied any subterfuge. They attributed the alterations to rising commodity prices.
Consumers are also angry that the confectionary company has reduced the number of eggs in a box from six to five. Cadbury have reissued the packaging formats for the Creme Egg so that consumers can now choose between boxes of five or twelve, rather than the previous three and six. They are also available separately.
Although Cadbury has lowered the recommended retail price (RRP) of the Creme Egg from £3.05 to £2.85, they are struggling to convince retailers to lower the price that they choose to set. Even if retailers adhered to both the previous and new RRPs, the price reduction would only represent half of a Creme Egg.
A spokesperson for Mondelez International, Kraft’s confectionary division, said: “It’s similar, but not exactly Dairy Milk. We tested the new one with consumers. It was found to be the best one for the Creme Egg, which is why we’ve used it this year.
“The Creme Egg has never been called the Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Creme Egg. We have never played on the fact that Dairy Milk chocolate was used.”
The latest developments follow the announcement in October 2014 that Cadbury would no longer be producing chocolate coins, and less than a year and a half after it faced further criticism over the reformulation of Dairy Milk chocolate bars.
The launch of the Creme Egg is a major event in Cadbury’s marketing calendar, and coincided with the introduction of a Jelly Bunnies variety of the Jelly Babies product from sister Kraft brand, Bassett’s.
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