A Mars Bar with a best-before date from 1991 has surfaced during a house clearance in Scunthorpe, and the discovery has drawn widespread attention online for illustrating how much the chocolate bar has shrunk over the decades. Victoria Gordon, who runs a cleaning and clearance service called Pocket Rockets, found the 62.5g bar on 5 August while sorting through a hoarder's property, and later shared a photo comparing it to a modern 40g bar.
Gordon said the size of the old wrapper immediately caught her attention while she was working through items that had been stored for decades.
It was nearly as big as my hand, which was kind of why I noticed it.
Speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire, she described the moment she picked up the bar during the clear-out.
We were clearing out a hoarder's house and everything we were rooting through was decades old. This Mars Bar stood out to me because as I picked it up it was nearly the whole length of my hand. I was like, 'Wow, look at the size of that!'
Gordon said she has not decided what to do with the bar but joked that she could be holding onto something valuable.
I do post some hoarding videos but I've never had anything go this viral. It's so fascinating what people find so interesting. I almost put it in the skip [but] I might do a UK tour with it.
How much has the Mars Bar actually shrunk?
The comparison highlights a decline that has continued in stages rather than happening all at once. According to Wikipedia's entry on the Mars bar, Mars UK reduced the standard bar to 40g in March 2026, down from a previous 51g version. Separate reporting from Dexerto notes that the viral 1991 bar, at 62.5g, is more than 50% heavier than today's 40g version. Coverage from the New York Post added that a Mars bar cost roughly 25p to 30p in 1991, compared with an average price of around $1.62 today.
Has the bar's size changed before?
Yes, the weight of the Mars bar has fluctuated repeatedly over several decades rather than shrinking in one continuous drop. Research cited by This Is Money indicates the standard bar weighed 65g in the 1990s before later dropping to 51g. A history of the product on retrotvads.com states the regular single bar was 62.5g, alongside other formats sold at the time, including a 54g multipack size and an 84g Kingsize bar. Another account, from Snack History, says Mars UK cut the regular bar from 62.5g to 58g in 2008. A separate analysis by economist Tim Harford, published on his personal website, argues the bar's weight has moved up and down over time rather than falling in a straight line, citing weights of 57g in the late 1970s and 67g in the mid-1980s. A similar case reported by Metro in 2019 also described a bar shrinking from 62.5g to 51g over the years, framing it as part of a long-running pattern.
Interest in disappearing or changing food traditions is not limited to shrinking chocolate bars. Elsewhere, food creators have been working to keep endangered regional dishes alive, as detailed in earlier coverage of home cooks reviving endangered British dishes and forgotten recipes, which noted concern among experts that some recipes could vanish without deliberate efforts to preserve them.
Key Facts
- The 1991 Mars Bar weighed 62.5g, compared with 40g for today's standard bar.
- Victoria Gordon of Pocket Rockets found the bar on 5 August during a house clearance in Scunthorpe.
- Mars UK reduced the regular bar to 40g in March 2026, according to Wikipedia.
- The bar's weight has fluctuated over decades, including a cut from 62.5g to 58g in 2008.
- A 1991 Mars bar cost around 25p to 30p, versus roughly $1.62 for a modern bar in the US, per the New York Post.
