Chocolate shoppers furious over big change to iconic Cadbury chocolate in shops
SHOPPERS are furious after spotting a big change to an iconic Cadbury chocolate in shops.
Fans are outraged after spotting that multipacks of Twirl chocolate bars have shrunk from four to three – while the price remains the same.
Four-packs used to contain four sets of two Twirl fingers, with each pair weighing 34g, but now they have only three sets of two, weighing 43g per pair.
It means the total amount of chocolate has gone down from 136g to 129g – a 5% reduction in chocolate.
However, the price remains the same at around £1.75.
The change from four to three has been blasted by fans, with one saying on X.com: “Just a curious post really to flag a @CadburyUK issue.
“They have reduced Twirl multipack sizes from 4x2bars to 3×2 bars but still charging the same.
“Not sure about other lines.
“Prices skyrocket from £1.10 to £1.75 now this, frankly outrageous.”
Another added: “This is shrinkflation gone too far.
“The Twirl bars were already getting incrementally smaller but all of a sudden Cadbury‘s have now reduced the multipack from 4 to 3-bars!
“Could not believe it. Had to find a replacement.”
Meanwhile, another user on the Asda website said: “Used to buy these all the time won’t be anymore now you only get three its disgusting, didn’t drop the price at all though..”
Mondelēz International explained the decision was made due to manufacturing issues, and that there had been only a “slight reduction” in the total weight of the product.
It said: “Due to manufacturing constraints that cannot be easily resolved, we’ve made the decision to move from packs containing four smaller twin-finger Cadbury Twirl bars to packs containing three full-sized twin-finger Cadbury Twirl bars.
“Whilst we appreciate that there is a slight reduction in the overall weight of our Cadbury Twirl multipacks, this move enables us to retain the twin finger proposition within our Multipacks offer, which is a defining and much-loved feature of the Cadbury Twirl brand for our consumers.
“We remain committed to providing choice to consumers, and continue to offer a variety of different pack sizes within our Cadbury multipack range.”
How to save money on chocolate
We all love a bit of chocolate from now and then, but you don't have to break the bank buying your favourite bar.
Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how to cut costs…
Go own brand – if you’re not too fussed about flavour and just want to supplant your chocolate cravings, you’ll save by going for the supermarket’s own brand bars.
Shop around – if you’ve spotted your favourite variety at the supermarket, make sure you check if it’s cheaper elsewhere.
Websites like Trolley.co.uk let you compare prices on products across all the major chains to see if you’re getting the best deal.
Look out for yellow stickers – supermarket staff put yellow, and sometimes orange and red, stickers on to products to show they’ve been reduced.
They usually do this if the product is coming to the end of its best-before date or the packaging is slightly damaged.
Buy bigger bars – most of the time, but not always, chocolate is cheaper per 100g the larger the bar.
So if you’ve got the appetite, and you were going to buy a hefty amount of chocolate anyway, you might as well go bigger.
It added that there were no plans to make the same move with its other four-packs of its chocolate bars, including Wispa, Flakes and Dairy Milk.
“We have no current plans to make any similar pack changes to our remaining Cadbury 4-pack range, and are confident that our new Cadbury Twirl 3×2-pack will complement our existing range of multipacks, and offer great value to consumers through its unique twin-finger proposition,” the statement said.
There are other Twirl multipacks available on the market at different price points, such as five-packs in Aldi (total weight 107.5g) for £1.45 and 10–packs in all supermarkets at £3 for a total 215g of chocolate.
Individually, bars cost around 85p.
It’s not the first time Cadbury has been blasted for so-called shrinkflation, where products shrink but the price remains the same.
In October we reported how family packs of Cadbury chocolate have shrunk down from 216g to 207g, but the price remains the same at around £3 for 14 treats.
Recently, Cadbury was forced to pull its hot chocolate from the shelves.
Shoppers were hit with shortages of the drinking chocolate at the end of last year after it was withdrawn from sale over quality concerns.
The concerning reason was revealed earlier this week.
Meanwhile, the chocolate company revealed its 2025 Easter chocolate range.
The confectionery giant has rolled out a new selection box packed with classic goodies and the return of the iconic egg.
How to compare prices to get the best deal
JUST because something is on offer, or is part of a sale, it doesn't mean it's always a good deal.
There are plenty of comparison websites out there that’ll check prices for you – so don’t be left paying more than you have to.
Most of them work by comparing the prices across hundreds of retailers.
Here are some that we recommend:
- Google Shopping is a tool that lets users search for and compare prices for products across the web. Simply type in keywords, or a product number, to bring up search results.
- Price Spy logs the history of how much something costs from over 3,000 different retailers, including Argos, Amazon, eBay and the supermarkets. Once you select an individual product you can quickly compare which stores have the best price and which have it in stock.
- Idealo is another website that lets you compare prices between retailers. All shoppers need to do is search for the item they need and the website will rank them from the cheapest to the most expensive one.
- CamelCamelCamel only works on goods being sold on Amazon. To use it, type in the URL of the product you want to check the price of.