Kit-Kat maker Nestle has insisted that the move to cut levels of saturated fat from its chocolate bars will not have any impact of the taste of the chocolate bar.
The food company says it will cut 3,800 tonnes of saturated fat from over a billion Kit Kat bars per year by reformulating the recipe next year. The pledge will see the amount of saturated fat contained in the four-finger variant of the bar come down to 6.4g from 7.2g.
Managing director of Nestle in the UK Ciaran Sullivan says in a statement: “Improving the nutritional profile of Kit Kat does not come at the expense of qua lit and taste and consumers will continue to enjoy the same Kit Kat as they have for over 75 years.
“This is the next step on the journey where are improving the nutritional profile of our products. Kit Kat is our biggest confectionery brand and therefore the obvious choice is to identify a sat fat reduction.”
The pledge was part of the company’s “responsibility deal” with the Government. Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Mondelez and Unilever have also vowed to make changes to their products.
The Government claims the companies signing up to the ”Responsibility Deal Saturated Fat Reduction Pledge” and agreeing to reduce the amount of saturated fat in the foods they make and sell equates to “almost half of the food industry”.
Public Health Minister Jane Ellison says: “It’s hugely encouraging that companies providing almost half of the food available on the UK market have committed to this new Responsibility Deal pledge and they are leading the way to give their customers healthier products and lower fat alternatives.”Critics, however, say the deal does not go far enough and only statutory regulation will work.
Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, told the BBC: “They need to ensure that at the same time they lower the sugar and salt that they have used to make foods more tasty as a result of lowering the fat content.”
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