Some of Britain’s best-loved chocolate bars now contain so little cocoa they’ve been BANNED from calling themselves chocolate… is YOUR favourite on the list?

Two much-loved British chocolates are no longer classed as ‘chocolate’ because they contain so little cocoa.

Club and Penguin bars must now be labeled as ‘chocolate flavoured’ as cost-cutting measures have greatly affected their ingredients.

The bars, both my McVities, now contain more palm oil and shea butter in their coatings than cocoa solids.

The biscuit giant was forced to describe other treats, including Mini BN and BN Mini Rolls, as ‘chocolate flavoured’.

The move also means the Club will have to change its slogan.

It used to say ‘If you like chocolate on biscuits, join our club’, but now the brand says: ‘If you like a lot of biscuits in your snack, join our club’.

The skyrocketing costs of cocoa have led the makers of the lunch box classic to change their recipes without causing major damage to customers’ pockets.

McVitie’s owner Pladis said in a statement: ‘We made some changes to McVitie’s Penguin and Club earlier this year where we used chocolate flavored coating containing cocoa mass instead of chocolate coating.

‘Sensory testing with consumers shows that the new coatings offer the same great taste as the originals.’

Penguin bars also had to make this change because they were no longer classed as ‘chocolate’ (file photo)

The increase in cocoa prices is due to poor harvests caused by extreme weather conditions in major producers, including Ghana and Ivory Coast, over the past three years.

Unusual rainfall and high temperatures more than doubled cocoa futures prices last year, reaching a record high of around £8.20 per kilogram in January, before falling slightly on forecasts of a more promising harvest and lower demand.

Pladis added that it is committed to “delivering great-tasting snacks by adjusting formulations only where necessary, while minimizing the impact of rising costs on consumers.”

KitKat White and McVitie’s white digestives can no longer be marketed as ‘white chocolate’ due to similar rules regarding cocoa content; but their recipes changed before this year.

Some of the UK’s best-loved Christmas chocolate bars are getting smaller this year, new research has revealed.

Despite the smaller sizes, prices rose by as much as 33 percent in some cases, and this was partly due to the rising cost of cocoa.

Quality Street tubs are among the desserts whose sizes have decreased from 600 grams to 550 grams.

The Grocer said the pre-promotion price at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons was up 16.7 percent year-on-year, despite the box falling by 8.3 percent.

The price of the 550g tub at budget supermarket Asda is cheaper than last year’s 600g tub, down from £6 to £4.68, the outlet said.

Elsewhere, a 750g box of Cadbury Roses has been reduced from 750g to 700g at Morrisons, but the price has increased from £14 to £16.50.

Terry’s Chocolate Orange faced similar changes, shrinking in size by 7.6 percent. But catering at Tesco has faced a 33 per cent price increase.

The price of orange-flavored chocolate increased by 28.2 percent at Sainsbury’s and 25 percent at Morrisons.