FDBusiness.com

Nestlé’s Rowntree’s® brand has unveiled brand new 30% less sugar versions of two of its best-selling products – Rowntree’s® Fruit Pastilles and Rowntree’s® Randoms®. As part of the recipe change, the sugar removed has been replaced by increasing the fibre content in these brand new versions that are being offered alongside the existing, classic products to promote choice on the confectionery aisle.

As well as having 30% less sugar, the new products also have fewer calories and remain free from artificial flavours, colours and sweeteners ensuring 100% fruity flavour.

9,000 consumers have already had the chance to try the new products as part of a large-scale blind taste test led through social media and initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The launch follows hot on the heels of Nestlé’s announcement that it will remove 10% of the sugar across its confectionery portfolio by 2018.

Dame Fiona Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé UK and Ireland, says: “Our announcement last month was all about improving our existing products while this launch is all about choice. These new products will sit alongside our existing range and offer a real alternative for consumers. We are delighted that our innovation gives consumers the option of a significantly reduced sugar version of both Fruit Pastilles and Randoms® and, as consumers make the switch to the less sugar version, it can help deliver a reduction in the amount of sugar consumed overall.”

She adds: “Confectionery can play as much of a part in the efforts to reduce sugar and tackle obesity in the UK as any other category and, as we’re demonstrating, we’ll take every opportunity to innovate and reformulate to improve our products. We have worked incredibly hard to create these brand new versions of our favourite sweets. There have been as many as 76 different versions of the recipe over two years of research and development to ensure that what we have ended up with is just as good as the full sugar products.”

Nestlé also recently announced that its flagship chocolate brand, KitKat®, will introduce extra milk and cocoa to provide a sugar reduction of more than 1,000 tonnes from the nation’s diet by replacing sugar with more of those existing natural ingredients.

These innovations are all part of a number of Nestlé’s initiatives to improve its products through a range of methods and make incremental sugar reductions in different ways that, when added up, are a positive step overall to help improve the nation’s diet while still maintaining taste.

The new Rowntree’s® products will be exclusive to Tesco from this week before being available more widely in the summer.