White chocolate McVitie’s Digestives and Kit Kats no longer contain the required levels of cocoa butter to be lawfully described as “white chocolate”, The Grocer can reveal.
In the UK, legislation requires that white chocolate must contain a minimum of 20% cocoa butter. However, White Kit Kats do not hit this minimum requirement, and a recent reformulation of White Chocolate Digestives saw McVitie’s remove all cocoa butter from the recipe.
As such, Kit Kat owner Nestlé and McVitie’s owner Pladis have been forced to update their respective pack designs to remove the word “chocolate” from the front over recent months.
Nestlé changed the packaging for Kit Kat Chunky White at the start of 2025, swapping out “white chocolate” for “white” on the front of pack. McVitie’s rolled out new pack designs in March, also changing “white chocolate” for “white” on the front of pack.
Kit Kat Chunky White does contain cocoa-derived ingredients, such as fat-reduced cocoa powder, cocoa butter and cocoa mass. However, palm and shea fats, which constitute a higher percentage of the overall recipe, are used to make the white coating.
Updating the product description in January meant the manufacturer was “accurate and compliant with how we describe the ingredient which is made with vegetable fats rather than cocoa butter”, a Nestlé spokeswoman told The Grocer.
For McVitie’s, cocoa butter was completely removed from White Digestives in March and replaced with palm, shea and sal oils.
A Pladis spokeswoman confirmed the cocoa butter used previously in White Digestives had been swapped for a blend of other fats due to “a business continuity issue with our coating supplier”.
“As proud custodians of biscuits and snacks that have been loved for generations, it is crucial that Pladis maintain the ability to deliver our high-quality products consistently,” the spokeswoman told The Grocer.
“Recently, due to a business continuity issue with our coating supplier, we have had to move from cocoa fat to a blend of fats for our much-loved McVitie’s White Digestives.
“Sensory testing with consumers showed the new coating delivers the same great taste and texture as the original, with people indicating equally strong intent to repurchase.”
Price dynamics
Following Kit Kat Chunky White’s overhaul, pre-promotional shelf prices of 4x40g packs have soared by 50% from £1.50 to £2.25 in Sainsbury’s and Morrisons [Assosia 28 w/e 7 July 2025]. Meanwhile, its shelf price has risen by 9.3% to £1.64 in Asda and by 10% to £1.65 in Tesco.
Pre-promotional shelf prices of McVitie’s White Digestives 232g have remained stable at £2.08 in Asda and at £2.25 in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons since their reformulation in March [Assosia 17 w/e 7 July 2025].
Cocoa commodity prices hit record-breaking highs last year triggered by a poor crop in west Africa, caused by extremely dry weather and compounded by the spread of diseases such as cacao swollen shoot virus in cocoa plantations across Ivory Coast and neighbouring Ghana.
The likes of Cadbury, Mars Wrigley and Nestlé have been putting through price increases on chocolate and shrinking packs of it in recent months to mitigate the impact of soaring cocoa costs.
According to one senior industry insider, the percentage increase on cocoa butter prices has been “even higher” than on cocoa mass, which is likely putting even more pressure on manufacturers of white chocolate products.
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