In a development that will delight anyone who enjoys pointing at packaging and saying "well, actually," Kellogg's has stopped using rice grains in its UK Rice Krispies and Coco Pops. The culprit? "Changing weather conditions," which is corporate-speak for "the sky has stopped cooperating."

Corn flour and rice flour are now doing the job previously handled by rice grains, a Kellogg's spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday. The company insists the updated recipes have been "carefully assessed" and that customer feedback was taken into consideration, presumably right before the flour went in.

The root cause is dry weather in key rice-producing countries in Asia, which has reduced harvests and driven up prices. So if you've noticed your breakfast cereal tasting slightly more like a supply-chain white paper than a bowl of puffed rice, that's why.

One notable side effect: the new recipes mean UK cereal packaging will now carry a "contains wheat gluten" warning. Nothing says "part of a balanced breakfast" like a newly acquired allergen disclaimer.

Meanwhile, Rice Krispies in the US and Canada will continue to be made with real rice, with no recipe changes expected, according to a spokesperson for Kellogg's North American business. So American Snap, Crackle and Pop remain fully employed. Their British cousins are, presumably, on flour duty.

The UK change is meant to "maintain consistent quality at a time when changing weather conditions are affecting the quality and availability of some of the rice and grains used in our cereals," the Kellogg's spokesperson told the BBC. "We appreciate that even small changes to a much-loved product can feel noticeable and that's why we have approached this with a lot of care and consideration."

Reassuringly, the company says Rice Krispies and Coco Pops will continue to meet UK food standards on fat, salt and sugar. The cereals contain no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners, and nutritional benefits per bowl - fibre, Vitamin D and iron - remain unchanged. So the bowl is still basically fine; it's just no longer, strictly speaking, rice.

For those keeping score at home, the Kellogg company split into two distinct firms in 2023. The largest, Kellanova, focuses on snacks, cereals, noodles and products like Eggo, Pringles and Pop-Tarts sold globally, and is now owned by Mars, the confectionery and pet food giant. The other business, WK Kellogg's, operates in North America and has since been taken over by Italian chocolate giant Ferrero. The cereal aisle is now a subsidiary of the candy aisle, which explains a great deal about modern life.

Most of the world's rice comes from Asia, many parts of which have been hit by droughts, floods and heatwaves due to the El Niño weather phenomenon. That event is expected to severely impact crop production from South East Asia in particular - a region that produces more than a quarter of the world's rice. The World Meteorological Agency expects the record-breaking El Niño to last until at least 2027, which means the phrase "changing weather conditions" will likely be doing a lot of heavy lifting in press releases for the foreseeable future.

So the next time you pour a bowl of Rice Krispies and hear only a faint, floury silence instead of the traditional snap, crackle and pop, remember: it's not a bug, it's climate change. And at least the Vitamin D is still there.