NESTLE Rowntree today rubbished claims that KitKat was no longer top of the chocs.

Trade magazine The Grocer reported that Cadbury's Dairy Milk had replaced York's chocolate confectionery bar as Britain's most popular chocolate.

But Nestl spokesman Paul Kirkwood said the claims were unfair, because sales of two-finger KitKats had been excluded from the statistics for the first time because they were now counted as "biscuits".

He revealed that total sales of KitKat had risen by £10 million in the past year, from £255 million to £265 million.

"It's been another record-breaking year," he said.

Meanwhile, Nestl confirmed that it is to launch a white chocolate version of its KitKat Chunky bar.

Updated: 10:55 Tuesday, December 18, 2001