Nestle touts new technology to reduce sugar in chocolate

Announcement comes as global obesity epidemic ramps up pressure on food makers to make their products healthier

Dec 1 Nestle, the world's largest packaged food group, said it had made a scientific breakthrough that has the potential to reduce sugar in its candy products by up to 40 per cent.

"Our scientists have discovered a completely new way to use a traditional, natural ingredient," the company's chief technology officer, Stefan Catsicas, said in a statement late on Wednesday.



The announcement comes as a global obesity epidemic ramps up pressure on food makers to make their products healthier.

Using only natural ingredients, Nestle said its researchers had found a way to structure sugar differently, so that less sugar can be used in chocolate with no difference to taste.

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The maker of Kitkat and Aero bars said it was patenting its findings and would begin to use the faster-dissolving sugar across a range of its confectionery products from 2018.