“This was a one-off, limited issue caused by a shortage of stock held at our Nestlé factory. It has now been resolved. This was entirely unrelated to Nestlé's suppliers or the wider supply chain and we do not expect any repeat of the shortage,” the company said in a statement.
The production run using the alternate foil colours lasted for around three days and accounted for around 400,000 packs of Quality Street. For context, approximately 17 million packs are produced at Nestlé's Halifax factory every year.
The assortment's most famous sweets were temporarily wrapped in different colours when it became clear that stocks of green and orange foil would not cover a planned production run that took place last week.
Nestlé UK said the chocolates themselves remain entirely unchanged and identical in every way to those normally wrapped in orange and green.
Quality Street sweets can occasionally be substituted for one another when a particular sweet can't be manufactured for some reason. However, on this occasion, the company said it was felt the change of coloured foil was a better solution to make sure as many people as possible get the full Quality Street selection this Christmas.
Jemma Handley, Senior Brand Manager, said: "I promise this isn't a publicity stunt. We've not added full-size chocolate bars to the tin or removed the coconut flavour from a handful of tubs.
"We simply didn't have enough of the right coloured foil to cover the production run of the two sweets in question and, rather than leave them out of the selection altogether, we decided to use different colours for a very limited period.
"We are fairly sure this is the first time this has happened so anybody who finds a green triangle or an orange crunch in a different coloured foil will have something of rarity on their hands. I am pleased to say that it's the same delicious hazelnut and orange sweets inside the wrappers, regardless of their colour."
Nestlé UK said production at the factory is now back to normal with green triangle and orange crunch restored to their traditional colour of foils while packs with the substitute foil wrappers will land on shelves at retailers across the UK and Ireland over the next few weeks.
Recyclable paper packaging
Last month and in a category first, Nestlé announced Quality Street will move to recyclable paper packaging for its twist-wrapped sweets. By replacing the double layer of foil and cellulose with a paper wrap, the festive assortment will remove more than two billion pieces of packaging material from the brand’s supply chain, Nestlé claimed.
Nine of the 11 Quality Street sweets will move to paper-based packaging. The Orange Crunch and the Green Triangle will remain in their simple foil wrappers as, traditionally, they have not had cellulose wrappers. The transition to paper, which is now underway, will take several months to complete. This means that for Christmas 2022, consumers will find a mix of both the old and new wrappers in their Quality Street cartons, pouches, tubs, and tins.