FT Galaxy

Skimmed milk powder is now the second-most prominent ingredient in Galaxy bars

Mars has quietly reformulated Galaxy, The Grocer can reveal.

The confectionery giant has made skimmed milk powder the second-largest ingredient after sugar across a swathe of Galaxy products in the past few weeks, shows analysis of ingredients lists by The Grocer using Assosia data.

Galaxy Ripple Chocolate Bar 33g, Galaxy Minstrels Chocolate Bags Multipacks 3x42g and Galaxy Milk 110g now contain more skimmed milk powder than cocoa butter, which was previously the second largest ingredient [Assosia, 12 w/e 27 October 2022].

A Mars spokeswoman confirmed the move. “Skimmed milk powder now appears before cocoa butter in the ingredients list as sweet whey powder is not currently included in the recipe.”

“The proportion of cocoa butter in our Galaxy recipe remains unchanged.”

It is not known whether the move is linked to costs, but Mars has been shrinking its confectionery lines to mitigate cost increases. It shrunk its Twix multipacks and Maltesers sharing pouches over the summer, citing the “rising costs of raw materials and operations”.

The change in recipe comes shortly after The Grocer revealed Galaxy had been usurped by Lindt Lindor as Britain’s second chocolate brand.

Sales of the brand were down £13.2m in the 52 weeks to 9 July 2022, after the range of Galaxy Vegan bars was delisted from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

In September, Mars struggled to supply many lines of its core confectionery brands including Topic, Skittles, Minstrels, Bounty and Mars bars – blaming “high levels of demand” for empty shelves and out-of-stock notifications.

Mars isn’t the only chocolate giant reformulating its bars. Research by The Grocer using the Wayback Machine reveals Cadbury has removed shea oil from Boost since 2017.