Easter eggs - just how much is chocolate & how much is not?

A study has revealed that some leading Easter egg brands contain almost as much packaging as confectionery.

Buy many of the eggs on sale this year and at least one-third of what you take home will be tinfoil, plastic and - probably unrecycled - cardboard, research by Oxfordshire county council has shown.

So if you’re in a rush buying eggs last minute today or tomorrow, here’s a quick low down.

The worst offender in the study was the Nestle KitKat egg - only 52 per cent of its 280g selling weight is edible. The company's Aero egg was little better: 154g of its 346g total weight is packaging.

Of other big brands, the Simpsons Easter egg, made by Kinnerton, is more than 40 per cent packaging, while Terry's and Tesco eggs also have chocolate:packaging ratios that are difficult to digest.

Sainsbury's Raspberry egg was the ‘greenest’ in the study. Wrapped in lightweight coloured cellophane, just 16.25 per cent of its weight is packaging.

The council said some specially designed Easter products produced very little waste. It found that the packaging in a box of eight Cadbury Cream Eggs comprised only 6 per cent of its total weight, leaving 94 per cent pure confectionery.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme, which campaigns for more efficient use of materials, said consumers who bought packaged eggs should check the Recyclenow website to find out what their local council would recycle.