Pladis labels Club and Penguin coatings as chocolate flavour

McVities owner Pladis has quietly reformulated two of Britain’s best known biscuit bars, saying earlier this year the coatings on Club and Penguin will be described as “chocolate flavour” rather than chocolate because they now contain more shea and palm oil than cocoa. The change affects product descriptions and marketing in the UK and follows industrywide efforts to manage sharply higher cocoa costs.

Pladis said it switched from a chocolate coating to a chocolate flavour coating that still contains cocoa mass and that sensory testing indicates the new recipes deliver the same taste. The company also revised Club’s long-running slogan, replacing a line that referenced heavy chocolate content with one that emphasises the biscuit component. Industry reporting and product labelling show the bars’ coatings no longer meet the legal thresholds for being marketed as chocolate in the UK.

Manufacturers have cited sustained cocoa price pressure and tighter supply from major producing regions as the reason for recipe changes. Poor harvests in recent years in Ivory Coast and Ghana, driven by extreme temperatures and irregular rainfall, pushed cocoa futures markedly higher and prompted...