Nestlé says 413,793 KitKat candy bars stolen en route from Italy to Poland - AP News

Nestlé says thieves have stolen a huge shipment of KitKat bars from a truck heading from Italy to Poland. On Friday, the company said the vehicle and its cargo still have not been found. The bars disappeared last week while moving between production and distribution sites. Nestlé says the load totals about 12 tons, or more than 400,000 bars. The company says the bars were meant for sale across Europe. Nestlé warns they could show up in unofficial markets. It says each bar has a batch code. Shoppers and retailers can scan codes and report matches.

A KitKat chocolate bar in Rugby, England, on July 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File)

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss food giant Nestlé says about 12 tons, or 413,793 candy bars, of its KitKat chocolate brand were stolen after leaving its production site in Italy earlier this week for Poland.

The company, based in Vevey, Switzerland, said in a statement Friday that “the vehicle and its load are still nowhere to be found.”

The shipment of the crunchy bars, made of waffles covered with chocolate, disappeared last week while en route between production and distribution locations. The chocolate bars were to be distributed throughout Europe.

The missing candy bars could enter unofficial sales channels across European markets, the company said, but if this does happen, all products can be traced using the unique batch code assigned to individual bars.

A spokesperson for KitKat said that as a result, consumers, retailers and wholesalers would be able to identify if a product is part of the stolen shipment by scanning the on-pack batch numbers. If a match is found, the scanner will be given clear instructions on how to alert the company, which will then share the evidence appropriately.

“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.

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