Freddo

Freddo (originally Freddo Frog) is a brand of chocolate bar manufactured by the British confectionery company Cadbury.^[1] Each chocolate is a solid bar shaped like a cartoon frog, standing up and wearing clothes.

The product was invented in 1930 by Harry Melbourne, an 18-year-old moulder employed by MacRobertson's, an Australian confectionery company.^[2] The 12g bar is sold in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Zimbabwe. In the United Kingdom Freddo is individually sold in a larger 18g form.

History

1930 Freddo advertisement.

In 1930, the MacRobertson's chocolate company were looking to add a new product to their children's range. Initial designs for a chocolate mouse were rejected, as Harry Melbourne felt that women and children were afraid of mice and would dislike the product. It was instead decided to produce a chocolate frog, branded as "Freddo Frog".^[1] There were four varieties available: milk chocolate, white chocolate, half milk/half white, and milk chocolate with peanuts.

Freddo Frogs became part of the Cadbury product range in 1967, when MacRobertson's were sold to Cadbury. In Australia, Freddo Frogs are manufactured in Ringwood, Victoria and Hobart. Since the success of Freddo, an alternative chocolate named Caramello Koala (formerly Caramello Bear), also made by Cadbury, has been created. Caramello Koala is the only flavour in which the chocolate is not shaped like "Freddo", but shaped like a Koala instead.

Freddo bars were released onto the UK market in 1973 and withdrawn in 1979. After 15 years they were re-launched.^[3] In the UK, a caramel filled version is also sold, with a yellow wrapper. This was formerly known as the Taz bar, featuring the Looney Tunes character. They disappeared for several years before returning under the Freddo image.

In June 2006, a scare over possible Salmonella contamination in some Cadbury products in the UK led to the recall of around a million Cadbury chocolate bars, including the standard Freddo.^[4] As a result of the contamination Cadbury was fined £1M, and ordered to pay an additional £152,000 in costs.^[5]

In 2009, the Freddo chocolate was redesigned in the United Kingdom, featuring a new, glossier Freddo design, and a replacement Dairy Milk logo. The same year saw the launch of an online animated series on the product's website.^[6]

In 2009 a 12 year old boy was charged with receiving stolen goods after he had been given a Freddo stolen from a shop in Northam near Perth, in a case which Colin Barnett, the Premier of Western Australia, described as a Freddo frog having "held the whole police system up to ridicule".^[7] After missing a court date in connection with the matter, the boy, who had no previous convictions, had been arrested and held for several hours in a police cell.^[8] The boy's lawyer, Peter Collins from the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, suggested that the charges were because the boy was Aboriginal, and that the same action would not have been taken against a "non-Aboriginal kid from an affluent Perth suburb with professional parents".^[9] Northam police denied this, and said the boy had come to their attention in the past. The charges were subsequently dropped, and an order for legal costs of one thousand Australian dollars was made in the boy's favour.^[10] The Freddo itself was not recovered because it had been eaten.^[8]

Varieties

Though primarily available as solid milk fingers, certain versions of the product have a cream or caramel centered flavouring. These include Dairy Milk, white chocolate, rice crisp, strawberry, peppermint, Crunchie, pineapple, "Rainbow Crunch" and "Milky Top" (the top half being white chocolate and the bottom milk chocolate, in the style of Cadbury's "Top Deck" products).

See also

• Caramello Koala
• List of chocolate bar brands

Footnotes

References

External links

• Cadbury United Kingdom - Freddo information page, includes nutrition
• Cadbury Australia - Freddo
• The Adventures of Freddo website
• Unofficial Freddo Frog fansite