Maltesers has long marketed its product as “the lighter way to enjoy chocolate”.
But the brand, owned by Mars, has started to take its own catchphrase a little too literally.
Sharing bags of everyone’s favourite cinema treat have shrunk, coming in at 103g instead of the traditional 121g.
The travesty was spotted by Steve Dresser, who provides food insight to retailers.
The Maltesers shocker follows a multitude of food-related catastrophes in the UK.
In October Tesco announced a Marmite shortage following a costing row and just last week, the makers of Toblerone broke our hearts by reducing the chocolate in traditional bars.
Understandably, Maltesers’ latest trick has been too much for some to bear.
Just like the Toblerone controversy, many are speculating Brexit is to blame for Maltesers’ new look.
In response to the outrage, a Mars spokesperson told The Huffington Post UK: “Like all chocolate manufacturers, we have seen the cost of raw materials rise and, while we try to absorb these pressures as much as possible, sometimes we have to make the difficult decision to reduce the size of some of our products so our consumers can continue to enjoy an affordable treat.
“Our focus is always on offering consumers our great tasting, high quality chocolate brands at the best value for money.”
Maltesers can now join this motley crew of confectionary disappointments.
The manufacturer issued a statement on Facebook which said it had increased the gap between peaks on its bars so they could continue to offer customers “good value for money”, but the move was called "ridiculous" by disappointed fans.
Despite the beloved treat being 10% smaller than it was a year ago, in many shops the price is still the same. Devastated.
Nestle removed the rectangular cocoa-covered toffee sweet from its boxes after 80 years and replaced it with a Honeycomb Crunch.
One person summed up all our reactions by saying: "Is nothing sacred?"
But then one day Cadbury decided to remove the chocolate bar from supermarket shelves and replace it with a low-calorie wafer. We're not bitter. Not at all.
Very clearly not the stuff of dreams.
