Thieves have stolen more than 400,000 KitKat chocolate bars, weighing about 12 tonnes, from a truck in Europe.

The chocolates, produced by Swiss company Nestlé, were taken while the vehicle was transporting them along a route from a factory in central Italy to Poland, according to a statement from KitKat.

“The vehicle and its contents remain unaccounted for, and investigations are ongoing in close collaboration with local authorities and supply chain partners,” reads the statement.

The company said 413,793 KitKat bars were stolen. Each bar can be traced through its on-pack batch number, and KitKat has urged anyone who identifies a matching product to notify the company.

The statement also referenced a joint report by the International Union of Marine Insurance and the Transported Asset Protection Association EMEA, which found that cargo theft and freight fraud are increasing in frequency and growing more sophisticated.

“We’ve always encouraged people to have a break with KITKAT – but it seems thieves have taken the message too literally and made a break with more than 12 tonnes of our chocolate,” said a spokesperson in the statement.

“Whilst we appreciate the criminals’ exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes,” added the spokesperson.

This is not the only major chocolate theft reported in Europe in recent times. In July 2023, a British man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing 200,000 chocolate eggs.