Shoppers furious after Cadbury makes huge change to Easter eggs this year

You may have noticed chocolate eggs engulfing the shelves at your local supermarket, which must mean that Easter isn't far away.

Actually, it doesn't mean that these days, does it? It basically means we're past Christmas.

Anyway, whatever you make of rampant commercialism, one thing we can all agree on is that eating big chocolate eggs is fantastic.

Unfortunately though, the eggs appear to be less big this year.

The Sun decided to look into how Cadbury's offering measures up to last year, and the numbers make for grim reading.

The medium Wispa easter egg is now 182.5g, down from 224g, and yet still costs £3. Meanwhile, the larger Cadbury Flake egg - priced at £5 - is now 231.8g, dropping from 249g.

And large Dairy Milk eggs will still cost you a fiver, but they've shrunk from 286g to 245g.

Worse still, the Dairy Milk Freddo Faces Easter egg has shrunk from 122g to 96g - but now it costs £1.25 instead of £1.

Now that is hard to swallow.

The above are prime examples of so-called 'shrinkflation', whereby the price of a product remains the same but the size decreases.

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Consumer expert Sarah Coles of Hargreaves Lansdown slammed the downsizing, telling The Sun: "The horrors of shrinkflation are turning Easter eggs into mini eggs.

"We're spending significantly more in return for less chocolate. It feels particularly unfair to those on lower budgets, who are trying to keep everyone happy this Easter without breaking the bank."

A spokesperson for Mondelez - the parent company of Cadbury - told LADbible: "We're constantly looking at ways to innovate our products while keeping the fan favourites that the nation knows and loves. This year we've revamped our Easter egg range, offering a wide variety of sizes and price options for our Cadbury fans to choose from.

"The Traditional Gift Shell Eggs are a new part of the range for 2023, replacing the Large Shell Eggs. There are eight different eggs available as part of the Traditional Gift Shell Eggs range, including Cadbury Creme Egg, Cadbury Dairy Milk Giant Buttons, Caramel, Twirl, Cadbury Mini Eggs, Crunchie, Twirl Orange and Wispa Easter eggs.

"We have also introduced the Surprise & Delight Shell Egg range, bringing the treats back inside which many Cadbury fans may remember. There are six different eggs to choose from, including Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons, White Buttons, Freddo, Caramel Nibbles, Giant Buttons and Cadbury Mini Egg Easter eggs."

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Last March, Cadbury decided to shrink its Dairy Milk sharing bars by 10 percent.

Mondelez blamed rising inflation in the production of its chocolate as it reduced the size of its larger bars from 200g to 180g, adding it was the first time this had been done with the Dairy Milk in a decade.

A Mondelez spokesman said: "We're facing the same challenges that so many other food companies have already reported when it comes to significantly increased production costs – whether it's ingredients, energy or packaging – and rising inflation.

"This means that our products are much more expensive to make.

"We understand that consumers are faced with rising costs too, which is why we look to absorb costs wherever we can, but, in this difficult environment, we've had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of our medium Cadbury Dairy Milk bars for the first time since 2012, so that we can keep them competitive and ensure the great taste and quality our fans enjoy."