Big change to Quality Street chocolates ahead of Christmas leaves fans divided

Quality Street chocolates are getting a big change this year as Nestlé ditches foil wrappers in favour of recyclable paper and its new look has left fans divided.

The popular confectioner is renowned for producing around 12 million Quality Street chocolates a day - has traditionally wrapped the different flavours in foil and plastic wrappers for the last 87 years.

But in an effort to be more eco-conscious, the company is making a huge change to its appearance and with Quality Street tins among the staple Christmas buys each year, millions of shoppers will notice the change in the coming months.

It comes after a brand-new sweet was added to the collection and after a pick and mix service was launched.

The individual chocolates will be covered in a recyclable waxy paper and as a result, it will remove almost 2.5 billion individual pieces of packaging from its supply chain - saving it from going to landfill globally, Quality Street owner Nestlé says.

Two flavours - Orange Crunch and the Green Triangle - will remain in their existing foil wrappers as they can already be recycled.

Louise Barrett, head of the Nestlé Confectionery Product Technology Centre in York, said, "With nine different sweets to consider, the transition has been a huge undertaking.

"Each of our existing machines need to be adapted to run paper and then rigorously tested by our packaging experts to ensure we're still delivering the same quality consumers expect when they open a box of Quality Street.

"Quality Street made history from the start, using the world's first twist-wrapping machine to revolutionise the way chocolates were manufactured and sold."

Mrs Barrett continued, "Now we are making history again with the introduction of paper packaging for our famous sweets.

"We hope the fact that our famous sweets are now recyclable will make finding your own Quality Street favourites even more popular this year."

But it's going to take a while for the change to be rolled out fully, so Quality Street fans can expect to find both new and existing types of wrappers in their Quality Street box, pouches, tubs and tins until the end of 2022. 

But some fans aren't convinced on the new-eco look. 

One tweeted, "Horrible, lost their sparkle."

Another consumer added, "I understand why they have done this but to be fair how many of us will put the wrappers into the recycling? Very few I imagine."

And a third fan pointed out, "Celebrations have gone to the same style wrapping!"

But a fourth praised the move, and added, "Your all missing the real benefit of it making them quieter to open . A blessing to sneaky snafflers.."

The chocolatier caused outrage when it removed some favourite chocolate flavours from its tin and last year the manufacturer feared a shortage.

Quality Street isn't the only chocolate facing a make over - Nestlés' iconic KitKats will also begin using wrappers made with 80% recycled plastic.