A cleaning service owner has sparked a fresh wave of debate about "shrinkflation" after unearthing a Mars Bar from 1991 during a house clearance in Scunthorpe.
Victoria Gordon shared a photograph on social media placing the decades-old 62.5g bar next to a modern version, which weighs just 40g, a reduction of more than a third.
"It was nearly as big as my hand, which was kind of why I noticed it," Ms Gordon said of the discovery.
The bar, which carries a best-before date placing it at roughly 35 years old, was found buried among items during a routine clear-out of a property.
Ms Gordon, who operates a cleaning business called Pocket Rockets, regularly shares videos documenting finds from hoarding situations — but nothing has attracted attention on this scale.
"I've never had anything go this viral," she said. "It's so fascinating what people find so interesting."
She admitted the bar nearly ended up in a skip before she recognised its novelty value. Now she believes the relic could be worth something, describing it as a potential "gold mine".
As for the chocolate's future, Ms Gordon has not yet settled on a plan, although she floated the idea of taking it on a tour around the country.
"I almost put it in the skip but I might do a UK tour with it," she said.
A Mars spokesman said: "Over the last 35 years, we have made a number of updates to our bar sizes and pack formats to reflect consumer demand, alongside considering wider external factors such as manufacturing costs and the price of cocoa."
The viral post arrives in the wake of a significant legal ruling in Germany that has given the shrinkflation debate fresh momentum.
Earlier this year, Bremen's regional court found Mondelez, the company behind Milka chocolate, had breached competition law by reducing the size of its popular Alpenmilch bar without adequately alerting shoppers.
The case was initiated by Hamburg's consumer protection office after it received complaints about the product becoming smaller while costing more.
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Judges determined consumers had been deceived by the "visually conveyed expectation" created by packaging that remained virtually identical despite the weight change.
The ruling is widely regarded as a landmark moment in holding manufacturers accountable for disguising product reductions.
Mondelez told the BBC it was "taking the decision of the court seriously" and intended to examine the judgement thoroughly.
The Milka Alpenmilch bar at the centre of the dispute had been cut from 100g to 90g, with the sweet treat itself becoming approximately one millimetre thinner.
Despite this change, Mondelez retained the brand's distinctive purple wrapper with only minimal alterations. Simultaneously, the retail price climbed from €1.49 to €1.99 at the beginning of 2025.
German shoppers subsequently awarded the product the unwanted title of "ripoff packaging of the year 2025".
During proceedings, Mondelez's legal team argued customers had been notified through the company's website and social media channels, citing increased supply chain and production expenses as the reason for weight reductions across multiple Milka lines. They also pointed out that the bars had historically ranged between 81g and 100g depending on the variety.
The court, however, ruled the core issue lay in the disconnect between consumer expectations and what they actually received.
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