M&S have changed Percy Pig recipe

[APurpleSquirrel]

I know this is a First World problem but M&S have changed the recipe for the entire Percy Pig range to vegetarian, removing the gelatine.
Now they taste awful & the texture is wrong. 🤢
They've made them the same as the Green Earred Veggie versions but haven't announced the change - staff don't even know.
I bought several bags a few weeks ago, opened one & thought I'd bought the wrong thing, then checked the ingredients. There is nothing on the packaging to say it's been changed bar the ingredients list & a suitable for vegetarians note.
I took the bags back, got a refund & was lucky to find a few original packs still on the shelf but once they're all gone that's it - no more Percy Pigs 😭
Am gutted.

I thought they had been like that for ages?
I've always thought they were vile anyway.

Good! Not sure why anyone would want or need to eat gelatine. Do you know what it actually is?

I hate it when they change recipes, Irn Bru isn't the same now.

Plus I have quite a few allergies, and they're not within the "list" so I have to scour ingredients lists to check I can actually eat them, and if it's something I've previously eaten and it doesn't have anything to indicate it's a new recipe I generally wouldn't check

It's great they have done this. There is no need for animal products in sweets. A lot more people will be able to eat them.

Gelatine is hanging. Can’t see why anyone would miss it being in their food

That’s strange, I saw them in M&S a few days ago and they were all gelatine ones. Dd and me laughed at how they really were Percy Pigs in each one.

I think it's great that they've removed the gelatine - the thought of it makes me heave.
I think they've also significantly cut the sugar though (sugar tax, I assume) so maybe that's where the change of taste is coming from?

I hate it when you find something you love and then the recipe gets changed though :(

I agree, there's no need for a pig to actually be a main ingredient in sweets.

Gelatine is rancid and I always thought it was weird they added actual dead pig to the cute pig sweets . I’ve been eating the veggie ones for years and think they’re great.

Of course I know where gelatine comes from but I also eat meat so it doesn't bother me. I just think they should have decency to at least advertise the change.

Why is it so odd for anyone (if not veggie, Jewish, etc) to want to eat gelatine?

It's only pig collagen, not poison.

Glad to hear it! I don’t want ACTUAL pig in my piggy sweets thanks.

I eat meat but only when I know where it comes from. I have no idea where the gelatine will have come from or how those animals lived/died so I’m glad to see it removed as a ‘standard’ ingredient.

It'll be the sugar change etc which makes them taste crap. I never liked either kinds of Percy pig anyway. But other veggie sweets are amazing. If they mess with the sugar and stuff, that has a more noticeable change in flavour

I prefer Colin the Caterpillar myself but we'll done M&S on behalf of vegetarians! They are good on their veggie sweets-nearly all their sweets are gelatine free. I like the fizzy pop ones and the fruit pastilles are very good.

*well done

Yeah, I can see how low sugar Percy pigs might be horrible... no wonder they’ve removed the gelatine too - you could probably taste it 🤢 without all the sugar.

I hope they haven’t replaced it with sweetener.

I always thought the taste was the same and the texture was very similar? But I haven't eaten either the veggie or normal ones for 3 years now so if they've reduced sugar and messed about with the recipe then maybe they do taste awful now. Last time I visited the UK I was disappointed in lots of sweet treats that I'd been looking forward to reconnecting with... Lots of recipe changes :(

They've been that way for a while. I bought some last September for the first time in ages and they tasted really weird. Couldn't put my finger on why and then I saw they'd changed the ingredients.
Understand totally that removing gelatine means more people can eat them but honestly they just taste yucky now. I won't buy them anymore.

It's only pig collagen, not poison. Mmm...yummy!

I have eaten the veggie ones for ages and think they're lovely. Not as good as Colin the Caterpillars though - the fizzy ones are the best!

As a technically Jewish person, I can tell you we, as a people, are not the target market for any pig related foods -- so don't blame us!

This is the best news I've heard all week!

Great, that will give me a good reason to stop buying them for my kids if they taste crap now.

It's getting harder and harder to find good junk food nowadays!

Most people I know prefer the veggie ones anyway!

Also they seem to have removed the malted mint from their mint assortment. And don’t even get me started on the fact that they no longer do mint licorice allsorts.