Fans of M&S' popular Percy Pigs have been up in arms recently, after the High Street retailer revealed they are changing the recipe of the popular sweets to a vegetarian alternative - due to consumer demand. Although a vegetarian Percy Pig variety has been available for some time, all Percy Pigs will now be vegetarian and fans have been taking to social media to express their thoughts on the change.
One person tweeted M&S saying, 'Why do we all have to suffer and be forced to now eat veggie foods and have our own fave foods changed?! Stop forcing vegetarianism and veganism on us!! #percypigs @marksandspencer'.
However, M&S' social team have been quick to reply to the many tweets they've been receiving and told this Twitter user, 'We haven’t changed any of the really important things that people love about Percy; the flavour is the same, he still has real fruit juice and never has artificial colours or flavour. We also have the full range of non-vegetarian Percy Pigs available in stores too. Thanks, Emma'.
Another tweet from M&S told a customer, 'For the last 8 years we have been working to help our favourite pig move away from using pork gelatine. We learned a lot when removing gelatine from our Colin range in 2014, and in 2016 launched our first Percy with our new gelatine free recipe.
'In the 3 years since, we have progressively introduced the new recipe across all of our Percy range and from May this year we will be able to celebrate that Percy is 100% gelatine free and can be enjoyed by everybody'.
Now take a look at some chocolate bars we miss
CLOSER chocolate bars we miss - slider
1 of 211) Dairy Milk Tiffin
After being off the shelves for years, Tiffin made its comeback in 2016. Hallelujah!
2 of 212) Cadbury Coconut Boost
The core centre made up of dessicated coconut combined with a normal Boost bar was just too good - why on EARTH was this masterpiece ever taken out of circulation?!
3 of 213) Mars Delight
That caramel and chocolate cream filling mixed with that wafer, was a pure delight. Sadly, we despite people's efforts, this Mars chocolate bar won't be returning anytime soon.
4 of 214) Cadbury Marble
Milk and white chocolate AND praline in one bar? Yup. Cadbury's really are one of the best at coming up with new recipes.
5 of 215) Cadbury Spira
Two fingers of Dairy Milk with chocolate spiralling around the outside... YUM.
6 of 216) Time Out
The Time Out was very slyly taken off the shelves - basically a chocolate wafer, but SO MUCH MORE. Thankfully, they still exist in shops as a single wafer.
7 of 217) Cadbury Snow Flake
The geniuses at Cadbury decided to merge their white Dream chocolate with the standard flake to create utter perfection in this little bar. But why, oh why, did they stop making them?!
8 of 218) Rowntree's Cabana
Coconut, caramel, cherries and chocolate – the ultimate tropical chocolate bar, right?
9 of 219) Trio
TRIO! TRIOOOO! I want Trio and I want one now!
10 of 2110) Cadbury Dream
Possibly one of the best additions to the Heroes tin at Christmas.
11 of 2111) Cadbury Fuse
Nuts, raisins, fudge and cereal pieces all in one chocolate bar?! It's years since we last saw a Fuse bar around. Sob.
12 of 2112) Terry's Pyramint
Basically, a pyramid version of an After Eight but with a slightly sloppier middle. We miss these!
13 of 2113) KitKat Senses
We can't for the life of us think why these went extinct. But they've been refashioned in a selection box, so that's something at least.
14 of 2114) Milkybar Choo
We're hoping this one will make a comeback. The strange combination of white chocolate and fudge worked surprisingly perfectly.
15 of 2115) Cadbury Taz Bar
When Taz became extinct, this chocolate bar was revolutionised as a Freddo bar with caramel. But we miss that devil.
16 of 2116) Twix Top
This was the highlight of our school packed lunches... Anyone else?!
17 of 2117) Cadbury Snaps
They're like Pringles - but chocolate. And just like our favourite snack, you couldn't ever just have one Snap!
18 of 2118) Rowntree's Secret
Withdrawn due to low sales volumes, the marshmallow centre wrapped in thick chocolate was a real treat back in the day.
19 of 2119) Cadbury Wispa Mint
We've all had a Wispa, haven't we? But the mint version had an extra edge to it that was just simply divine. Sigh.
20 of 2120) Texan
The mighty chew.
21 of 2121) Flyte
Forget Maltesers, this really was a lighter way to enjoy chocolate.
Despite some unhappy fans of the vegetarian sweet, there have been others who very excited at the change, tweeting, 'I think they taste better even as a non vegetarian', with another saying, 'Veggie Percy Pigs have been around for years, & honestly taste better & have a much nicer texture than the ones with gelatine in. I'm not a vegetarian but I always buy the veggie Percys.'
Percy Pigs were originally launched in 1992 by M&S and have been very popular ever since.
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