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Cadbury 99 Flake is too flaky, ice cream vendors warn.
Ice cream vendors have insisted that the flake quality has deteriorated since production was moved to Egypt.
John Taylor, owner of C&M Creamery Ice, told BBC Product breaks easily. “You can’t give someone a 99 with a broken flake. It’s embarrassing for an ice cream guy,” he said.
He added: “They are fluffy by nature, but they need to be able to move around a bit.
“They’re charging top money for them, but they come off as if they’ve been tossed off a cliff.
“If you’re buying five boxes of Flake for an event and you find out a lot of them are broken, your day is ruined.”
Meanwhile, Lawrence Glauser, owner of Lorenzo’s Ice in East Yorkshire, said: “Often at least a quarter of the box is unusable.
“Now I serve on trays of ice cream and sprinkle the flake pieces on top. I shouldn’t do this. I’m fed up with the waste.
Glauser said he sometimes uses a German alternative to the Flak 99 which is “much denser and does not break apart easily.”
Katy Alston, who operates a van in Bognor Regis and is also president of the Ice Cream Alliance, said she would not be using Flake 99 this year because she said she had to throw away half in some cases.
“We’ve thrown 70 in a box before because they’re all broken,” he said. “For the first time ever, I won’t be using Cadbury Flake this year. It feels like a different product.
Cadbury’s owner Mondelēz said they have been making Flake 99 in Egypt since 2020 and there has been no change to the recipe.
A spokesperson for Mondelēz said: “Cadbury Flake 99 is an inherently fragile and crumbly product, and we have processes within our supply chain to avoid any wear and tear as much as possible.
“We are aware that some customers have recently received products that do not meet our usual high standards. This has been addressed following recent improvements to our production processes, however some ex-stock may remain in circulation Are.
“We are in the process of liaising with our customers (wholesalers) to support those potentially affected. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The company said it takes its product quality “very seriously”.
