Chocolate Without Added Sugar
Nestlé has created a new recipe that reduces the sugar amount in chocolate by 40%.
Jul 17, 2019
VEVEY, Switzerland—Rising obesity rates and consumer demand for healthier products have driven many food companies to come up with better-for-you alternatives. This week, Nestlé SA announced it has a patented technique to create chocolate without added sugar, Bloomberg reports.
The recipe uses the white pulp that surrounds cocoa beans as a sweetener in chocolate. Usually, the pulp has been tossed aside in the chocolate-making process. In Japan this fall, the company will debut KitKat bars with 70% dark chocolate using the new formula.
Nestlé might also use the same process to create chocolate milk or white chocolate, according to Alexander von Maillot, head of Nestlé’s confectionery business. The company will use the method in other confectionery brands in more countries the following year. “Using pulp makes it a more premium chocolate,” he said. “Sugar is a cheap ingredient.”
The 70% dark chocolate contains up to 40% less sugar than many similar bars with added sugar. “The sugar reduction is incidental, not a focus,” von Maillot said. “It’s more about a novel way to produce chocolate and use the best of the cocoa pod.”
Earlier this month, Nestlé debuted its YES! snack bars in new paper packaging, one of first steps in the company’s commitment to changing all of its packaging to reusable or recyclable by 2025.
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