Maltesers Bags Are Now Lighter And People Are Livid

It's like #Tobleronegate all over again.

Maltesers has long marketed its product as “the lighter way to enjoy chocolate”.

But the brand, owned by Mars, has started to take its own catchphrase a little too literally.

Sharing bags of everyone’s favourite cinema treat have shrunk, coming in at 103g instead of the traditional 121g.

The travesty was spotted by Steve Dresser, who provides food insight to retailers.

The Maltesers shocker follows a multitude of food-related catastrophes in the UK.

In October Tesco announced a Marmite shortage following a costing row and just last week, the makers of Toblerone broke our hearts by reducing the chocolate in traditional bars.

Understandably, Maltesers’ latest trick has been too much for some to bear.

Just like the Toblerone controversy, many are speculating Brexit is to blame for Maltesers’ new look.

In response to the outrage, a Mars spokesperson told The Huffington Post UK: “Like all chocolate manufacturers, we have seen the cost of raw materials rise and, while we try to absorb these pressures as much as possible, sometimes we have to make the difficult decision to reduce the size of some of our products so our consumers can continue to enjoy an affordable treat.

“Our focus is always on offering consumers our great tasting, high quality chocolate brands at the best value for money.”

Maltesers can now join this motley crew of confectionary disappointments.

When Toblerone Changed Shape
Toblerone
Instead of reducing the price of Toblerone, Mondelēz changed the shape of the bar to include bigger gaps between each triangle.

The manufacturer issued a statement on Facebook which said it had increased the gap between peaks on its bars so they could continue to offer customers “good value for money”, but the move was called "ridiculous" by disappointed fans.
When Terry’s Chocolate Orange Shrank By 10%
Earlier this year it emerged that Terry's Chocolate Orange manufacturer Mondelez International had taken the 175g chocolate and reduced it to 157g.

Despite the beloved treat being 10% smaller than it was a year ago, in many shops the price is still the same. Devastated.
When Toffee Deluxe Was Removed From Quality Street
For some people, the Toffee Deluxe was a chocolate to be fought over at Christmas time. But not anymore.

Nestle removed the rectangular cocoa-covered toffee sweet from its boxes after 80 years and replaced it with a Honeycomb Crunch.
When Cadbury Changed Its ‘Fruit & Nut’ Recipe
Last year, Cadbury broke Fruit & Nut fans' hearts after it announced it would be changing the 90-year-old recipe by adding sultanas.

One person summed up all our reactions by saying: "Is nothing sacred?"
When Galaxy Truffle Was Removed From Celebrations
PLAYBUZZ
It was a move that prompted government petitions and angry Facebook pages, but sadly no amount of protesting could bring back the Galaxy Truffle after its controversial removal from the Celebrations tub. Sad times.
When Cadbury Scrapped Its Time Out Bar And Swapped It For A Wafer
CADBURY
Remember Time Out bars? They lightened up many a dreary morning/afternoon/evening.

But then one day Cadbury decided to remove the chocolate bar from supermarket shelves and replace it with a low-calorie wafer. We're not bitter. Not at all.
When Crunchies And Dreams Were Removed From Cadbury Heroes
LEON NEAL via Getty Images
In a controversial move back in 2008, Dreams and Crunchies were dropped from Cadbury Heroes tubs and replaced with Bournvilles and toffee Eclairs.

Very clearly not the stuff of dreams.
When Cadbury Secretly Changed Its Creme Egg Recipe
Chocolate lovers were left outraged after it emerged that Cadbury had “secretly” changed its Creme Egg recipe in 2015. The sticky white and yellow centre had been kept the same, but the company had swapped the traditional Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate shell to a “standard cocoa mix”.
When Opal Fruits Became Starburst
PA/PA Archive
Opal Fruits were renamed Starburst in 1998 by manufacturer Mars - much to fans' disgust. Admittedly Starburst have now become a household name and many of us have probably forgotten about Opal Fruits. But still, it was traumatic at the time, people.
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