Toblerone is changing its iconic mountain logo because of ‘Swissness’ rules

Toblerone is removing the iconic Matterhorn from its packaging after moving some of the chocolate’s production to outside Switzerland.

The triangular-shaped chocolate, made from Swiss milk with honey and almond nougat, is redesigning its labelling to include its founder’s signature and a new typeface.

But the jagged Matterhorn, an Alpine peak standing at almost 4,500m, is being replaced with a more generic mountain due to issues with ‘Swissness’ criteria.

Mondolez International, which makes Toblerone, revealed last year it is moving some of its production to the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

But under Switzerland’s Swissness Act, which was passed in 2017, national symbols and Swiss crosses are not allowed to be used to promote milk or dairy products that are not made exclusively in Switzerland.

For other food types, at least 80% of the raw product must be made in Switzerland to be allowed to be called ‘Swiss’.

A Mondelez spokesperson told local newspaper Aargauer Zeitung: ‘The packaging redesign introduces a modernised and streamlined mountain logo that aligns with the geometric and triangular aesthetic.’

The company also told the BBC the production move allowed it to ‘respond to increased demand worldwide and to grow our Toblerone brand for the future’.

Toblerone packaging will now read ‘established in Switzerland,’ rather than ‘of Switzerland’. 

The chocolate bar first went on sale in 1908 in Bern – the capital city of Switzerland.

The Bernese bear and the eagle were first to appear on its packaging, with the Matterhorn not appearing in its design until 1970.

Mondelez said Bern was an ‘important part of our history and will continue to be so for the future’.

The shape of the chocolate bar was controversially changed in 2016 to space out the triangles and ‘keep costs down’ – but this was reverted back to the original design two years later.

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