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GENEVA (AP) — Nestlé, the renowned Swiss food conglomerate, has announced the theft of approximately 12 tons of KitKat chocolate bars, totaling 413,793 individual bars. The incident occurred after the shipment departed from the company’s Italian production site en route to Poland earlier this week.
In a statement released on Friday, Nestlé, headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, confirmed that both the transport vehicle and its cargo have yet to be located.
The batch of chocolate-covered waffle bars vanished last week as it was being transported between production and distribution centers. The plan was for these KitKats to be distributed across European markets.
Nestlé has expressed concern that the stolen candy bars might infiltrate unauthorized sales channels within Europe. However, the company reassures consumers that every product can be tracked using a specific batch code unique to each bar.
A KitKat spokesperson explained that this traceability allows consumers, retailers, and wholesalers to determine if a product belongs to the stolen batch by scanning its on-pack batch numbers. Should a match occur, clear instructions are provided for notifying the company, which will then take the necessary steps to handle the situation.
“Whilst we appreciate the criminals’ exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes,” KitKat said in a statement.
“With more sophisticated schemes being deployed on a regular basis, we have chosen to go public with our own experience in the hope that it raises awareness of an increasingly common criminal trend,” the statement added.