No one's saying they're good for you, but you know where you stand with old-fashioned chocolate bars. They fill a snack-sized hole: unwrap, chomp, get on with your life. They are, however, yesterday's news. These days, it's all about Bitsa Wispa, Galaxy Bits and Aero Bubbles - bite-size versions of the treats we know and love in large pouches. Trouble is, these packets hold around three times as much chocolate as the originals.Chocolate bags, as the new genre is called, "are one of the most successful categories within the sector," says Tony Bilsborough, spokesperson for Cadbury. They're now worth, he explains, more than £300m across all brands in the UK and sales have been growing at more than 5% in recent months. "I think this is a consequence of the growth of the big night in," he adds, the implication being that the bags are for sharing.They certainly make for a tempting purchase, but their appeal is riddled with those little contradictions we turn a blind eye to when we're feeling greedy. Each piece seems harmlessly minute, even compared with the fun-size bars of old. But unlike the fun-sizes, minis are unwrapped, facilitating, as Hershey Co puts it, "faster hand-to-mouth-eating". And while you might previously have avoided bigger bags in case you accidentally scoffed the lot yourself, Cadbury's offerings, which also include Twirl Bites and Caramel Nibbles, come with plastic zips so, you know, if you have super-human willpower, you can close the bag after a few mouthfuls and save some for later.Resealability, says Mintel senior global packaging analyst Benjamin Punchard, gives a feeling of choice to the consumer. "Whether it's something they really want or brands are using it to hide behind, to say: 'We're not giving people large portions,' that's another question." Bilsborough maintains that Cadbury wouldn't recommend eating the whole bag in one sitting and the zip affords portion control.
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