Nestlé said it discovered a new way of reducing sugar in chocolate but taste just as good as the current blend.
A quite radical idea. Nestlé, a leading confectionery company, said it can reduce sugar in chocolate and other products by as much as forty percent while keeping the original sweetness and taste.
You read that right. That is forty percent, and it could change the way we eat the most favorite sweet food in the world.
Nestlé published a press release in November, revealing that its research has found a way to reduce the total sugar serving of its chocolates, but they taste just as good as the current blend.
The Swiss company said sweet chocolate with less sugar could soon be a reality, and that’s by using only natural ingredients.
“Your tongue perceives an almost identical sweetness to before,” said Nestlé. “The new faster dissolving sugar will enable Nestlé to significantly reduce the total sugar in its confectionery products, while maintaining great taste.”
Stefan Catsicas, the company’s chief technology officer, said that it is a truly groundbreaking research.
Inspired by nature, the discovery has the potential to reduce sugar content of Nestlé products by up to forty percent, Catsicas reiterated.
Sugar content varies from brand to brand, but it is safe to say that many popular chocolate products have more sugar than the recommended serving published by various health agencies including the U.S. FDA.
So to boost its brand image and elevate its sales, Nestlé, unsurprisingly, is patenting its scientific findings. The company said it will use the new sugar across a range of its products from 2018 onwards.
In other words, those Nestlé products you can buy in stores still contain more sugar, and eating more than what is recommended could greatly raise your risk for obesity, elevated blood sugar and other conditions that could kill you.
Nestlé said its new natural sweetener research is a part of its commitment to reducing sugar in its products.
Why 2018?
According to a report from the Consumer Reports, starting 2018 in the United States, food labels will contain a specific line for the amount of added sugar per serving in a product.
The magazine explained that added sugars are sugars that food manufacturers has included in a food or recipe. And they are different from the sugars that are intrinsically present in dairy, fruit, and other foods.
Its resident food-tasting scientist, Maxine Siegel, R.D., explained that most of the added sugars in our diet don’t come from stirring sugar into coffee or sprinkling it on berries.
“We’re getting it from packaged foods—even some you wouldn’t think of as sweet,” Siegel revealed.
Of course, a product with less sugar per serving can actually improve sales, as more people read nutritional labels now.
In 2010, a study published in the American Dietetic Association revealed that over sixty percent of Americans pay attention to nutritional facts of products, although fewer people, or over 51 percent, pay attention to the list of ingredients.
Interestingly, a relatively high percentage of consumers that year also checked the serving size and health claims of products.
