Grocery brands have once again marked April Fools’ Day by unleashing a wave of increasingly bizarre, brilliantly deadpan and occasionally unsettling product launches.

From a Jammie Dodger with no jam, to Aldi opening its own law firm and Heinz leaning into the nation’s matcha obsession with a green-tinted mayo, this year’s pranks showed there is still plenty of room for mischief in the supermarket aisle.

Here are some of the funniest and most absurd grocery April Fools’ Day stunts doing the rounds this year.

Jammie Dodgers removes the jam

In perhaps one of the boldest moves of the day, Fox’s Burton’s Companies announced that Jammie Dodgers was launching “Dodger Hearts”, biscuits inspired by the famous heart-shaped cut-out in the middle of the classic treat.

For the first time ever, the brand proposed selling the “missing piece” of the biscuit as a standalone snack, made from golden shortcake and stripped of the fruity filling that gives Jammie Dodgers their name.

It’s exactly the sort of idea that sounds just plausible enough to make shoppers pause before realising the joke. As Scott Perry, chief marketing officer at FBC, put it, Jammie Dodgers has been “missing a biscuit heart since 1960”, so why not bring it back?

Aldi swaps trolleys for testimonies with LEGALDI

Aldi went full absurdist with one of the strongest supermarket pranks of the day, announcing the launch of its own law firm: LEGALDI.

Positioned as a service for shoppers who may have suffered an “Aldi-dent” that was not their fault, the fictional firm promised help for everything from being accused of copying to being caught with an Aldi bag in a rival supermarket.

The campaign was pushed out on social media with the line: “LEGALDI. Bread. Milk. Justice”, alongside a mock-serious video taking aim at retail rivalries and the discounter’s long-running reputation for cheeky copycat culture.

Predictably, shoppers lapped it up. Some claimed to have left voicemails, others called for Cuthbert’s freedom, and plenty declared that every other brand may as well cancel their scheduled posts.

DASH reveals KitKat flavoured soft drink

Healthy water brand DASH is no stranger to crafting flavourful drinks, with blackcurrant, lime and grapefruit making up just a small fraction of its offering. However, for shoppers craving the taste of a KitKat with no calorific hangover, DASH announced the release of a KitKat collab combined with cherry.

The brand’s marketing makes a cheeky nod to the recent KitKat heist, covered by Grocery Gazette. Is this where the missing KitKats ended up?

Mark this as one April Fools’ prank we’d like to see come to fruition.

alterego bottles up “Wheyter”

In a year already full of protein mania, cottage cheese brand alterego made a strong case for the prize for most cursed concept with “Wheyter”, a fictional protein drink made from the supposed leftover liquid from cottage cheese.

Framed as a sustainable, protein-rich hydration innovation, the prank played perfectly into the current obsession with functional food and drink. Packaged in refillable sugar-cane bottles from Bottle Up and rolled out with teaser posts and a fake sign-up for the “first drop”, Wheyter looked just convincing enough to draw people in.

The joke also cleverly tied back to the brand’s real proposition. alterego’s actual point is that its cottage cheese is deliberately thick and creamy, rather than runny, but on April 1, it decided to take that logic to its most ridiculous conclusion.

Divine Chocolate launches a bar infused with positive affirmations

Divine Chocolate took a more surreal route, unveiling what it described as the world’s first chocolate bar infused with positive affirmations throughout the entire production process.

The “Good Vibes Bar” was said to combine premium chocolate with warm, friendly messages delivered from cocoa farming right through to the factory line, inspired by the idea that positivity can somehow shape the final product.

It was a wonderfully straight-faced concept, made even better by the fact it leaned on wellness culture, pseudo-science and the language of ethical indulgence all at once.

For a brand already rooted in a do-good, feel-good proposition, it was a smart bit of self-aware fun.

Dr. Will’s and Gü turn up the heat with sriracha pudding

A spicy chocolate dessert may sound like something already lurking in a trend report somewhere, which is what made the Dr. Will’s and Gü prank particularly effective.

The two brands teamed up to “launch” Sriracha Chocolate Melting Middle Puddings, riffing on Gü’s bestselling dessert format with a molten centre made from Dr. Will’s sriracha hot sauce.

It was positioned as the ultimate expression of the sweet-and-spicy trend, and crucially, it was realistic enough to be disturbing.

According to the brands, the dessert had actually been made by their chefs, which only added to the chaos. Mercifully, it is not heading for supermarket shelves.

Asda unveils trolley seats for bored partners

Asda went after a familiar supermarket pain point with its prank, the hopeless co-shopper.

The retailer announced plans for adult-sized trolley seats designed to keep bored partners, wandering teenagers and generally unhelpful companions safely contained while the “main shopper” gets on with the weekly shop.

Complete with an armchair-style seat, cup holder and built-in phone holder for hands-free scrolling, the concept was backed by mock research into the chaos of co-shopping. According to Asda, disappearing acts mid-aisle, forgotten items and snack-based distractions are all adding unnecessary stress to supermarket trips.

Heinz and PerfectTed serve up Matcha Mayo

Heinz also joined the party, teaming up with matcha brand PerfectTed to create Matcha Mayo.

Blending Heinz mayonnaise with the earthy green flavour of matcha, the prank tapped directly into one of the year’s biggest food and drink crazes. The result was as visually alarming as it was culturally on-point: a product designed to make people ask whether the brand had truly gone too far.

That was, of course, the whole point.

The prank worked because it sat in the sweet spot between absurd and believable. Matcha has already made the leap from niche wellness ingredient to mainstream obsession, so the idea of it turning up in condiments did not feel entirely impossible. Which is perhaps the biggest warning sign of all.

And the winner is… chaos

This year’s grocery April Fools’ crop proved that the best brand pranks aren’t just silly, they’re strategically silly.

Whether riffing on protein overload, functional wellness, retail rivalries or the unstoppable spread of matcha, the strongest campaigns managed to parody modern food and drink culture while still feeling oddly plausible.

A jam-free Jammie Dodger, an Aldi law firm and a trolley seat for disinterested partners may not be hitting shelves any time soon, but for one day at least, grocery got to loosen its tie and have some fun.

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