Nestle’s new techcan cut 40% sugar in chocolate without changing taste
Swiss transnational food and drink company Nestle says they have come up with a new technology that will allow them to cut the amount of sugar in some of their chocolate bars by up to 40% without changing the quality of its taste.
Nestle, whose chocolate products include KitKat, Aero and Yorkies, said it has discovered a way “to structure sugar differently”. The new process involves hollowing out the sugar crystals to make it dissolve faster so that even when less is used, the tongue perceives an identical level of sweetness.
The company plans to patent the process, discovered by its scientists, which it says will enable it to significantly decrease the total sugar in its confectionery products.
Nestlé’s chief technology officer Stefan Catsicas said, “Our scientists have discovered a completely new way to use a traditional, natural ingredient.”
Sugar has been blamed for fueling the obesity epidemic crippling the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and health campaigners have urged confectionery companies to cut unnecessary sugar from their products.
In 2014, Action on Sugar was launched with the goal of encouraging government and manufacturers to cut sugar in food by 30%.
In that context, Nestle’s self-proclaimed breakthrough is likely to be welcomed, should it live up to its claims, and be potentially lucrative to the company.
It says it will begin to use the faster-dissolving sugar in its confectionery products from 2018.
A four-finger milk chocolate KitKat currently contains 23.8g of sugar, a plain (milk chocolate) Yorkie contains 26.9g, and a medium peppermint Aero has 24.9g of sugar. If the amount of sugar in each of these products was cut by 40% the new amounts would be 14.3g, 16.1g and 14.9g respectively.
Dietary sugar should account for no more than 5% of daily calories consumed, which equates to 30g for those aged 11 and over, according to the UK’s official nutrition advisers.
Figures published in September showed that in 2012-14 the average was 13.4% for those aged between four and 10, 15.2% among 11- to 18-year-olds, 12.3% for adults under 65 and 11.1% for those aged 65 and over.
“This truly groundbreaking research is inspired by nature and has the potential to reduce total sugar by up to 40% in our confectionery,” Casticas said.
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