Cadbury confirms ‘shocking’ change to Crunchie Easter egg leaving chocolate fans fuming

In what feels like a hammer blow to chocolate lovers, Cadbury has admitted you’re now getting less choc for your money this Easter.

The confectionary giant admitted its Crunchie eggs now only include one ‘fun-sized’ bar, leaving customers who have purchased the festive treat asking: ‘What the hell is this?’

Cadbury admitted this is a result of ‘higher costs’ but one woman has shamed the company for shrinkflation.

It tracks, given the Which? food price inflation tracker data shows the cost of chocolate is up 12.6% more than this time last year, that’s more than double the 5.6% average supermarket food inflation figure.

Natalie Norton purchased the Crunchie Shell Egg (167g) from Tesco for the Clubcard price of £2.85 last month as a ‘Sunday treat’ for her and her mum to share.

But when she went to tuck into her chocolate, the 34-year-old was shocked to discover it only came with a ‘treatsized’ Crunchy chocolate bar instead of a full-sized one.

She took to TikTok to complain, saying: ‘Erm Cadbury, what the hell? Where’s my Crunchie?’

Natalie claims the bar was so small her and her mum only had a ‘bite each’.

At first, the food retail worker believed there had been a mix-up with the size but after reading the back of the Easter egg box, discovered this was the correct chocolate bar.

Natalie, from Coventry in the West Midlands, says: ‘When it says one bar [on the packaging], I expected it to be a full-sized Crunchie not fun-sized.

‘I said to my mum, “what the hell is this? Are they having a laugh?”.

‘A couple of years ago you used to get a couple of full-sized bars in an Easter egg so this is why I was shocked it was a fun-sized bar.’

Others in the comments lamented this change, saying: ‘Back in my day we got full sized bars and a cup.’

‘It’s always been a bar, never “Heroes” size. This shows it’s true – chocolate and Easter eggs are getting smaller,’ added another.

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Someone questioned ‘what’s even the point anymore’ if Cadbury is only going to throw in a singular small chocolate.

‘It’s a perfect example of the cost-of-living crisis and shrinkflation,’ Natalie adds. ‘Everything is getting smaller but prices are still going up.

‘The size shocked me and I asked my mum if someone had made a mistake but I guess this is what it is now. I like Cadbury but an extra bit of Crunchie would have been nice.’

Cadbury confirmed the egg used to come with two treat-sized bars but this has been reduced to one, due to them experiencing ‘significantly higher input costs across their supply chain’.

At present, on the Tesco website the 167g egg is currently priced at £3.50 for Clubcard members and £4.50 regular price.

A Mondelēz International spokesperson, which owns Cadbury, admitted the change and says it’s not something that was done lightly.

‘We understand the economic pressures that consumers continue to face and raising prices is a last resort for our business,’ they said.

‘However, as a food producer… our products continue to be much more expensive to make and while we have absorbed these costs where possible, we still face considerable challenges.’

They said this was done so Cadbury can keep providing consumers with ‘brands they love, without compromising on great taste and quality’.

‘All product details are labelled clearly on pack so consumers can make an informed choice before buying,’ they added.

Tesco were also contacted for comment.

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