UK Cadbury chocolate eggs do say ‘Easter’ on them

As Easter approaches we’ve seen posts circulating on social media with false claims that Cadbury has removed the word ‘Easter’ from its chocolate eggs, which are also supposedly “certified halal”.

Cadbury has not removed the word ‘Easter’ from its eggs, and, although most of its chocolate is suitable for those on a halal diet (because the only animal products it contains are milk and eggs), it is not “certified halal”. 

The word halal in the context of food consumption refers to what is permissible under Islamic law. Manufacturers can seek halal certification for their products to show they meet Islamic dietary laws.

A spokesperson for Mondelēz International, the company which owns Cadbury, told Full Fact: “All Cadbury Easter shell eggs sold in the UK reference Easter very clearly on the packaging—sometimes multiple times. Cadbury has used the word Easter in our marketing and communications for over 100 years and continue to do so with our new Easter product range. To claim anything otherwise is factually incorrect.”

They added: “Most of the Cadbury range is suitable for those following a Halal diet. However, it is not Halal certified. All nutritional information is clearly displayed on packaging, and it is recommended that people with any dietary requirements review this before consuming.”

The Cadbury shell eggs for its Caramel, Mini Eggs, Creme Egg and Freddo products that Full Fact found for sale on 16 April all had the word ‘Easter’ displayed on the packaging, usually on the top of the box, which is not visible in the images in the online posts. 

However, the social media posts also feature images of chocolate eggs that aren’t made by Cadbury, including Rolo, Aero, Smarties and Milkybar, which are produced by Nestlé. Full Fact could not find reference to ‘Easter’ on the packaging of the ‘sea splash’ branded Smarties egg found for sale on 17 April. 

A spokesperson for Nestlé told us: “In our confectionery archive, we proudly hold thousands of Easter-themed products, many of which don’t explicitly reference Easter on their packaging.”

“There wasn’t a deliberate decision to remove the word ‘Easter’ from our products; and it’s still included in many of our communications at Nestlé.”

The company confirmed that some products were halal, others weren’t, and none were halal certified.

The picture on social media also includes a Maltesers egg, which is made by Mars. Full Fact was able to find a Maltesers egg on sale on 17 April that mentioned Easter on the side of its packaging. We’ve approached the company for comment.

We’ve previously written about a fake screenshot of a post from Asda marketing halal certified "celebration eggs". 

It’s important to consider whether content you see on social media is genuine before sharing it with others. Our toolkit can help you do this.