MCVITIE’S has slashed the amount of sugar across a swathe of its biscuit brands.
It has re-jigged recipes for Original Digestives, Rich Tea, Chocolate Digestives, Hobnobs, Chocolate Hobnobs, Caramel Digestives and Ginger Nuts.
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They account for more than half of McVitie’s UK sales.
Original Digestives, for example, now contain nine per cent less sugar and five per cent less salt.
The move will remove an estimated 785 tonnes of sugar from Brits’ diet every year, the company said.
McVitie’s owner Pladis said the new recipes were “achieved through careful rebalancing of ingredients to reduce sugar and salt in order to get below or as close to Public Health England’s target while maintaining the distinctive taste.”
It said the changes had been tested on hundreds of customers including so-called McVitie ‘super-fans’ to ensure the reduction in sugar “could not be spotted”.
A spokesman said: “They even made sure the biscuits tasted exactly the same when dunked in a cup of tea and used a mechanical dunking arm in a laboratory to record the time to break when dunked.”
David Murray, managing director of Pladis UK & Ireland, said: “For years we have been working on reducing sugar in the nation’s favourite biscuits.
“It is exceptionally complex process because our fundamental philosophy is that we will absolutely not compromise on taste or quality of the ingredients.”
Last year McVitie’s launched granola oak bakes which contained 35 per cent less sugar than rivals’ offerings.
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