Nestlé's Cutting Back On Sugar Big Time

Don't worry, the taste is the same

Food giant Nestlé, which makes everything from Kit Kat bars to Häagen-Dazs ice cream, says it will reduce the amount of sugar it uses by 40 percent without impacting taste, starting in 2018, BBC News reports. The major move comes from a scientific breakthrough researchers for the company have made. According to the company:

Using only natural ingredients, Nestlé researchers have found a way to structure sugar differently. So even when much less is used in chocolate, your tongue perceives an almost identical sweetness to before.

To put the change in perspective, Kit Kat bars, which have 20 grams of sugar, will drop to 12, about half of the daily allowance for women and a third for men. A Butterfinger, which currently has 28 grams of sugar, will have just shy of 17. And that pint of vanilla ice cream from Häagen-Dazs will drop from 84 grams of sugar to just over 50.

Nestlé is working on a patent for its new sugar structure, which could spur other companies to try to replicate it, one sugar expert explains. In 2010, Pepsi did something similar when it created a special salt molecule that allowed the brand to reduce the amount of sodium in its products without impacting the taste.