Creme Egg fans say UK imports no yolk

Creme Eggs are now imported from Britain. Photo / Janna Dixon

Cadbury has been caught with egg on its face over yet another change to a Kiwi favourite.

Following a shake-up of the confectionery giant's operations last year, Creme Eggs are no longer made in Dunedin for distribution around New Zealand and Australia, as they have been since 1983.

British-made Creme Eggs are being imported for the first time and customers are wondering what has happened.

The public backlash is the last thing Cadbury needs after last year's controversy over palm oil being added to chocolate, and the 2008 furore over the axing of Kiwi classics Snifters, Sparkles and Tangy Fruits.

Dismayed Aucklander Megan Kenney started a Facebook group called Cadbury Creme Eggs are Rotten! after discovering this year's batch of the gooey Easter treat had "turned to crap".

"I went to buy one the other day and it was so disgusting I had to rinse my mouth out," says Kenney, 36.

"I stopped buying Cadbury after the palm oil thing. I'm sure Cadbury suffered then and they'll be suffering again when people stop buying Creme Eggs."

Another Facebook group to pop up is Creme Eggs from the UK? No thanks! The group, founded by Lydia Carr of Timaru, aims to unite Aussies and Kiwis under the blunt tagline: "We want our favourite Easter treat to be made Downunder. We don't want any more of that shite pommy crap!"

Trade Me forums have also been abuzz with outrage over the new recipe.

"The filling's changed, gone is that lush creme and now it's more like over-boiled egg," was one post. Another angry customer was "almost in tears at the disbelief of such terrorism over the best Easter egg ever created".

Cadbury New Zealand spokesman Daniel Ellis confirmed this year's Creme Eggs, which appear in stores from January to Easter, were different.

"In the UK, the chocolate is thinner and so is the UK Cadbury Dairy Milk recipe, which is different from the New Zealand version," says Ellis.

"The centre filling is not as runny as it's produced in a different way. In New Zealand, the filling would be injected into the shell version but in the UK .. it goes in as more of a blob."

The company said Cadbury had little alternative.

"We didn't have the equipment in Dunedin any more, it was either a case of not selling them in New Zealand or importing them from the UK."