Imagine if your favorite chocolate bar tasted just as good, but with much less sugar. This could soon be a reality, thanks to a major breakthrough by Nestlé scientists.

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

The discovery will enable Nestlé to significantly decrease the total sugar used in its confectionery products while maintaining a very natural taste.

On the left, sugar crystals appear in their current structure. With the Nestlé innovation, sugar crystals appear as shown on the right, allowing your tongue to taste the same level of sweetness while consuming less sugar. Source: Nestlé

“This truly groundbreaking research is inspired by nature and has the potential to reduce total sugar by up to 40% in our confectionery,” said Stefan Catsicas, Nestlé chief technology officer. “Our scientists have discovered a completely new way to use a traditional, natural ingredient.”

Nestlé is patenting its findings and will begin to use the faster-dissolving sugar across a range of its confectionery products from 2018 onwards.

The company expects to provide more details about the first rollout of reduced-sugar confectionery products sometime next year.

The research will accelerate Nestlé’s efforts to meet its continued public commitment to reducing the sugar content in its products.

It is one of a wide range of commitments the company has made on nutrition, which include improving the nutritional profile of its products by reducing the amount of sugar, salt and saturated fat they contain while at the same time increasing the amount of healthier nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and whole grains.