Nestlé’s flagship confectionery brand KitKat now contains extra milk and extra cocoa as Nestlé continues efforts to reduce sugar.

The improved recipe will see sugar replaced by more milk and cocoa and is being introduced across the KitKat milk chocolate range. It can be identified by newly designed ‘Extra Milk & Cocoa’ packs that will begin appearing on shelves from early April.

Earlier this month, Nestlé announced that it would reduce sugar by 10% across its confectionery portfolio through a range of methods that includes reformulation.

“When we announced that we were removing some of the sugar from our confectionery, the first questions that consumers asked us were: ‘are you going to make things smaller?’ and ‘will it taste the same?’” said Fiona Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé UK and Ireland. “I’m pleased to say that these products are the same size as the ones they are replacing and taste just as good.”

“Milk and cocoa has formed the basis of the KitKat recipe ever since it was introduced in 1936 so, while people might have been expecting us to add something else, this is a great example of us using our strength in research and innovation to develop a great recipe that replaces sugar with a bit more of the existing, natural ingredients that people know and love.”

The new recipe delivers a small sugar reduction in each product which, when scaled up, Nestlé says, is a positive step in reducing the amount of sugar in the UK’s diet overall. This move will take out more than 1,000 tonnes of sugar from UK public consumption – that’s more than 250 million teaspoons - and will remove more than 3 billion calories.

Nestlé is working on a number of initiatives within its confectionery business to deliver further sugar reductions towards its 10% saving by 2018.