KitKat Vegans to be discontinued as Nestlé says global demand is reducing

Vegan KitKats were a game-changer for many people, as they were one of the first regular “high street” chocolate bars to come in a vegan alternative when they arrived in 2021.

And it might still be “Veganuary” for some people, but Nestlé has revealed that it will soon stop selling the sweet treats across the world, and that they will disappear from shops in the UK within months.

A Nestlé spokesperson said: “We know that KitKat Vegan has been popular for those looking for dairy or vegan alternatives. Unfortunately, global demand has been reducing to the point that production was making manufacturing more and more complex and we have now made the difficult decision to discontinue the product. We know there will be some disappointment, however it will still be available in the UK and Ireland until the summer.”

Many people have mourned the decision online. Some contributors to the Facebook group Vegan Food UK are devastated by the news, with one saying: “No! You are just cruel! It’s one of the only nice tasting vegan chocolate products that my daughter can eat without an allergic reaction. We’ve been paying your over inflated prices for a long while and now you’re taking that little bit of pleasure away from her and so many thousands of others.”

Regular four-finger KitKats are sold for 75p at Tesco, while the vegan version is £1.

Someone else also flagged up the higher price, saying “Maybe if they weren't double the price of their standard KitKat, more people would buy them! Plus finding them is hard enough”, as did another contributor: “Nooo! I love these, so do my kids! Maybe if they’d sold them in multi pack and brought the price down, and put them next to the regular Kit Kats instead of only in the ‘free from’ aisle.”

And another said they are hard to find: “It’s lovely but you can’t find them in shops in small towns- there was no roll out in the UK, no advertising either.”

However, long-standing concerns about Nestlé have not gone away for some people. The company saw worldwide opprobrium in the 1970s over its perceived aggressive marketing of baby milk formula to developing countries, which sparked a Nestlé boycott. This has been continued by some until this day, although Nestle says it conforms to the World Health Organization Code on the issue. One commenter’s reaction was: “If it wasn't Nestle I would've bought them, but I can't give my money to such a cruel company.”