The Cadbury 99 flake is too flakey, ice cream sellers have warned.
Ice cream vendors have insisted the quality of the flake has deteriorated since production was moved to Egypt.
Owner of C&M Creamery Ices John Taylor told the BBC the product breaks easily. “You can’t give someone a 99 with a broken flake. It’s embarrassing for an ice-cream man,” he said.
He added: “They’re crumbly by nature but they should be able to stand up to a bit of moving around.
“They’re charging top money for them, but they arrive as though they have been bounced off a cliff.
“If you’re buying five boxes of Flake for an event and you discover a lot of them are broken your day is ruined.”
Meanwhile, Lawrence Glauser, owner of Lorenzo’s Ices in East Yorkshire said: “Often at least a quarter of a box are unusable.
“I now serve trays of ice cream and sprinkle bits of Flake on top. I shouldn’t have to do that. I’m fed up of the wastage.”
Glauser said he sometimes uses a German alternative to the flake 99 which are “a lot denser and don’t seem to fall apart as easily.”
Katy Alston, who operates a van in Bognor Regis and is also president of the Ice Cream Alliance said she will no longer be using the flake 99 this year after she said she had to throw half away in some cases.
“We’ve thrown away 70 in a single box before because they’ve all been broken,” she said. “For the first time, I won’t be using Cadbury flake this year. It feels a different product.”
Cadbury owners Mondelēz said they have been making the flake 99 in Egypt since 2020 and the recipe has not changed.
A Mondelēz spokesperson said: “Cadbury Flake 99 is a naturally delicate and crumbly product, and we have processes in place within our supply chain to avoid any breakage as much as possible.
“We are aware that recently some customers have received product which does not meet our usual high standards. This has been addressed following recent improvements to our production processes although some prior stock may remain in circulation.
“We are in the process of liaising with our customers (wholesalers) to support those potentially impacted. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The company added it takes the quality of its product “very seriously.”
