Mondelez International Inc., the US parent company that owns the chocolate brand is moving some of Toblerone’s production to Slovakia — which means the chocolate may not meet Switzerland’s legal definition of “Swissness,” according to Aargauer Zeitung, a Swiss media outlet that first reported the news on Friday.
Legislation to protect “Swissness” came into force in 2017. Now, Swiss law dictates that any food item marketing itself as being “made in Switzerland” must source at least 80% of its raw ingredients from the country
Milk and dairy products labeled “made in Switzerland” need to source 100% of their raw materials from the country — although there are exceptions for raw materials that cannot be produced in Switzerland — such as cocoa, most of which comes from Africa.
The law also covers the use of Swiss symbols, including those that indicate geographical territory.
Toblerone’s new design will feature a “modernized and streamlined” logo instead of the Matterhorn’s jagged outline, Mondelez International told Insider in a statement on Monday. The Matterhorn debuted on Toblerone’s packaging in 1970, according to its brand page.
The redesign will also include the signature of its founder, Theodor Tober, on its packaging and will still feature its “hidden bear,” the company added.
But it’s dropping “made in Switzerland” from the packaging. “We’ll relaunch the Toblerone packaging from this summer, saying the brand was ‘established in Switzerland,'” Livia Kolmitz, a spokesperson for Mondelez, told Reuters.
“For legal reasons, we have to adapt our packaging to the Swissness legislation and, among other things, remove the Swissness notice on the front of the Toblerone pack,” said Mondelez in its statement. But the company will still produce some chocolate bars in the Swiss capital of Bern, the snack food giant added.
The imminent change to Toblerone’s packaging comes after its controversial move in 2016 to reduce the weight of the bars in the UK by making the gaps between each triangular chocolate “peak” more prominent to cut costs. It reversed the move less than two years later.
