Easter

Easter eggs still available as stores lift restrictions for holiday period

09-Apr-2020 - Last updated on 09-Apr-2020 at 09:01 GMT

Ferrero Rocher Easter eggs were found to contain the most calories in an online supermarket survey. Pic: Ferrero Rocher

Brands struggle to keep up with online demand as supermarkets lift restrictions but stock less confectionery as retailers focus on supplying staple items since the coronavirus outbreak.

Supermarkets in the UK are reporting 25% of Easter eggs 'out of stock' as grocery outlets focus on Covid-19 supplies, according to latest data from analytics platform Edge by Ascential.

This week supermarkets, including Sainbury's, Asda, Waitrose, Tesco or Aldi, said they were lifting item restrictions on Easter eggs, while leading brands such Thorntons and Lindt are unable to deliver Easter eggs online because of high demand, and Cadbury has a waiting list for its customers.

Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe said: “We have been working hard with our suppliers to improve our product availability. We have removed limits from Easter eggs immediately as we know families often want to buy more than three and we have plenty of these in all stores and online.”

Which Easter eggs contain the most calories?

Consumer website OnBuy.com has scoured online supermarkets to discover which medium sized Easter eggs*, including chocolate-free alternatives, have the most and least calories.

It found:

Ferrero Rocher Easter eggs contain the most calories – a whopping 1,320 per pack.
M&Ms Choco egg is the ‘healthiest’ choice this Easter – it contains the lowest number of calories at 493 per pack.
KitKat Chunkys are the second most calorific Easter eggs at 772 calories.
Cadbury Creme Eggs, known to be calorific, place in the middle – the Easter egg combo contains 713 calories.

Which Easter eggs are the healthiest?

While none are exactly healthy, M&Ms Choco, with only 493 calories for the entire pack is the clear-cut winner for the Easter egg with the fewest calories, onbuy.com revealed.

This is followed by Moo Free dairy alternative with 578 calories, Maltesers (582 calories) and Tesco Free from dairy alternative (625 calories).

*Medium sized Easter eggs only were considered in this study. Where size isn’t specified, research concludes that medium size is a product between 115g and 213g which includes one egg and one additional food item.