NESTLE has been forced to abandon a new recipe for one of its iconic brands after fans slammed the "awful" new formula.
Nesquik customers have complained a recent ingredient change swapping out maltodextrin for rice flour left an unappealing "sludge" at the bottom of the glass.
Customers voiced their disapproval on social media, demanding the food giant abandon the "nasty, disgusting" new formula and return to the old recipe.
Nestlé admitted to The Sun the change has "not been popular" and confirmed it will return to the old ingredients, which should be back in shops in July.
It said to look out for its "old artwork design" for strawberry or banana flavour Nesquik, because that will contain the old formula.
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One fan who had voiced his displeasure over the change, Dan Lodge, wrote on X: "Just had a Nesquik for the first time in about 10 years.
"Horrible powdery after texture, someone's put rice flour in it?
"Bulking it up with rice flour!"
Another said: "Been drinking Nesquik strawberry powder for years but the new recipe with rice flour is nasty.
"Please change it back again. Not buying it again until you do."
Daniel Norris said: "New milkshake recipe is absolute hot a**, awful."
A fourth user wrote: "Why is your milkshake funny now? It’s leaving a sludge at the bottom of the cup every single time and is disgusting!"
The complaints were not isolated to X, formerly Twitter.
One Reddit user posted in the r/Milk subreddit: "I have been drinking Strawberry Nesquik for years and years, and recently I started finding it didn’t stay mixed long and you get a sort of thick sludge at the bottom.
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"Not pleasant at all. I tried two different packs with slightly different batch codes, and it was the same.
"I rang Nestle and they have apparently changed the ingredients, swapping Maltodextrin for rice flour.
"So they have broken it.
"I am now hoping enough people complain that they change it back.
"Apparently I wasn’t the first to say the same thing.
"I spent much of today checking the packs on supermarket shelves and buying any with the original recipe to keep me going for a bit!
"Has anyone else tried the new version? It isn’t obvious on the packs it’s changed, but the package imaging is different and it says rice flour in the ingredients."
Another user said they had the "same issues" with both strawberry and banana powder, calling it a "real shame".
They added: "I sent a complaint yesterday to Nestle and they responded saying that they are bringing back the original recipe (the one including Maltodextrin and not rice flour) because people have made them aware of a "sedimentation issue".
"I checked the recipe of Nesquik on their website both yesterday and today. Yesterday it said rice flour, and today it says Maltodextrin.
"I just hope that it's true that they are bringing back the original recipe."
Another Reddit user said: "I started drinking Nesquik again about a month ago, all was great.
"The last two weeks have been miserable with the sludge at the bottom and I thought I had a ruined batch of powder."
One milkshake fan wrote: "I thought I was the only one experiencing this, it's not the same colour and it's like grit at the bottom of the cup now, I've got two big containers too so feels such a waste.
Another said: "I thought it was going mad! I’ve been drinking Strawberry Nesquik every morning since the early 90s and this week I’ve had to down as much as I could to take my tablets thinking it was the different brand of milk! I could cry!
"30 years I’ve been drinking it with no problem. I shall be phoning to complain too as I can’t be starting off my mornings sad."
A Nestlé spokesperson told The Sun: “Our aim is always to have the best possible recipe on the market and we sometimes make changes that aim to improve on existing recipes.
"On this occasion the change has not been popular with consumers and we have listened to their feedback.
“We can confirm the old recipe is going back into production and it should be in stores in July.
"The old recipe will be produced in our old artwork design so look out for this when purchasing Strawberry/Banana Nesquik in-store.
"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”
