The price of chocolate is rising so much that chocolate bars are no longer legally chocolate bars.

Imagine for a moment that Nocilla, the famous Spanish spread, reduced the chocolate in its recipe so much that they could not use its famous ditty about “milk, cocoa, hazelnuts and sugar” without incurring fraud. Imagine the shock, the controversy, the disbelief.

Well, something very similar to that. just happened in the uk and, honestly, it is a warning of the future of chocolate.

What has happened? For decades, McVitie’s tried to become in the UK’s quintessential chocolate cookie: “If you like your cookies with lots of chocolate, join our club,” has been their advertising slogan all this time.

But that’s over: Pladis, the parent company (one of the country’s largest producers of cookies, sweets and salty snacks), has so limited the chocolate in the recipe for its Club cookies and Penguin bars that, legally, they are no longer chocolate cookies. Now They only have a chocolate ‘flavor’.

But why? The explanation is simple: cocoa prices have risen so much (especially, in 2024 and early 2025) and skyrocketing production costs. As we have been warning for months, this pressure was wreaking havoc on the world of chocolate.

Manufacturers very quickly realized that they could not transfer all the increases to final prices: demand was going to be savagely reduced. The reduflation and countless other strategies to contain prices.

And as both in the United Kingdom and in the European Union, the regulation requires that at least 20% of the product are “cocoa solids”crossing that line requires a change of name.

And what does all this imply? Although it may seem strange, the consequences of all this in October 2025 are that although consumption falls due to price, business improves. Although chocolate is 13% more expensive today than at the beginning of the year and almost 19% more than just a year ago; the sector has been able to generate more than 80 million profit than last year.

However, the future is uncertain. In a recent report, Produlce (the sector’s employers’ association) recognized that consumption fell last year (according to their calculations, by 8.6%), although spending per person increased by 5.5%. But that is something worrying: because, despite the fact that cocoa is giving some rest, the price is still double what is usual. And everything suggests that will continue to rise in the medium term.

Image | Ubcule | Monika Guzikowska

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