Easter Cadbury Mini Eggs Fans Use This Batch Code Trick To Find The Best Bags

The arrival of spring each year means the return of Easter treats to fill baskets for the holiday. Shoppers snap up traditional sweets like chocolate bunnies (which are usually hollow for a tricky reason), jelly beans, and Peeps, the baby chick- and bunny-shaped marshmallow candies that some people prefer stale and crunchy. Small chocolate eggs are another classic basket-filler, but some British fans of Cadbury's iconic candy-shelled milk chocolate mini eggs have been claiming they've changed, and are looking at batch codes to try to find the best ones.

Some people in Britain have been complaining that Cadbury mini eggs they've bought don't taste right, and contend that those made outside the country aren't the same as the ones produced in U.K. factories. To try and suss out where the ones sold in stores are made, they're looking on the bags for the three-digit batch code, which is next to the "best before" date. Supposedly, "OBO" means it was made in the U.K., while "OCO" indicates Ireland, and "OWR" points to Poland. Posters on Reddit said they'd seen an "OSK" code too, which others said also means Poland.

Whether there actually is any difference in the mini eggs is another matter. Cadbury owner Mondelez International told news outlets in 2025 that it hadn't changed the recipe in recent years. One of them, The Metro, also stated that there is no evidence that mini eggs made for the U.K. in factories outside the country are any different.

Kraft Foods bought Cadbury in 2010 and renamed the snack foods division that includes the British chocolate brand Mondelez in 2012. Britons were wary of product changes, and it caused a stir in the U.K. when the milk chocolate used for the shell of another Easter favorite, its Creme Eggs, was switched. But whether the mini eggs have really changed there or not, one place they actually are different is the USA.

Hershey's bought the rights to make Cadbury products in the U.S. in 1988, at a time when it was one of the decade's most influential American food brands. Hershey produces the mini eggs at its plants in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and, as with its other Cadbury products for the American market, it can alter the recipes. The first ingredient for the Dairy Milk Chocolate bar in the U.K., for instance, is milk, but it's sugar in a U.S. bar.

Social media posters and others who've done side-by-side taste tests of the two countries' mini eggs have noticed a difference. Both U.K. and American tasters said they're different and give the British ones the edge, calling them creamier and better-tasting, with some noting the American ones have an off-putting aftertaste. The U.K. ones are also decoratively speckled, while the American ones are not.

Interestingly, some in the U.S. have also been complaining about the mini eggs, saying the shells aren't crisp anymore. One Redditor got a response from Hershey that said if eggs were made less than two months earlier, the shells can be softer, but they will harden.