Rice Krispies and Coco Pops, long-standing staples of the family breakfast table, will no longer be made of whole rice grains in the UK, after Kellogg’s said it was changing its recipe.
Instead the tiny toasted puffs will be made using corn flour and rice flour, and will also now contain wheat gluten as an ingredient.
A Kellogg’s spokesperson said the reformulation was due to “changing weather conditions” that have disrupted supplies of some grains and cereals.
The cereal giant said the new versions had been “carefully assessed for taste, appearance and texture”, but fans complained online they no longer made the famous “pop” sound and said their children would no longer eat them.
Some expressed dismay that the taste and texture were “totally different” and dubbed the change “grim” and “disgusting”.
“There’s no snap, crackle and pop in these,” a parent named Dani wrote on TikTok. “My toddler won’t eat them.”
Lauren, also posting on TikTok, added that she had been eating Rice Krispies every day for breakfast “for years and years”.
“I had a bowl of the new recipe and you can immediately tell the difference,” she said. “They don’t have the snapping sound when you put in the milk.”
Jessicake meanwhile said they tasted “weird and stale”.
The “Snap, Crackle and Pop” – made when milk is added to the puffed rice – has been a centrepiece of the brand’s marketing since the 1950s.
Recipe changes are notoriously difficult for big brands. Chocolate makers are constantly accused of reducing cocoa content in their products and debates rage constantly online over whether ketchup recipes have changed.
When Scottish fizzy drink Irn Bru cut its sugar content in 2018, fans famously stockpiled crates of the old version.
No changes are being made to Rice Krispies products in the US and Canada.
Kellog’s said the recipe change in the UK will help “maintain consistent quality” as extreme weather takes a toll on crops and pushes up ingredient prices.
Rice Krispies, launched nearly a century ago, are sold around the world and come in variations such as vanilla and strawberry flavours in some markets alongside the widespread chocolate-flavoured Coco Pops version.
“We appreciate that even small changes to a much-loved product can feel noticeable and that’s why we have approached this with a lot of care and consideration,” Kellogg’s said.
The cereals have already undergone some change, with reductions in salt content in the 1990s and lowered sugar in 2018. The company said Rice Krispies and Coco Pops will continue to meet UK food standards on levels of fat, salt and sugar in food.
A backlash against processed foods in recent years, especially those low in fibre and high in sugar, has put cereals generally under the spotlight from healthy eating advocates.
Kellogg’s stressed the cereals contain no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners and the nutritional benefits in each bowl, such as fibre, Vitamin D and iron are staying the same.
However, the new recipes mean packaging will now include a “contains wheat gluten” warning.
Previously packaging said the products “may contain gluten” because they were made in a factory handling other cereals and there was a risk of cross-contamination.
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