Natural ingredients pledge

Nestlé USA has announced its commitment to removing artificial flavours and FDA-certified colours, such as Red 40 and Yellow 5, from all of its chocolate candy products. This will be achieved by replacing artificial flavours and colours with ingredients from natural sources. For example, artificial vanillin in Crunch bars will be replaced with natural vanilla.

Products will start appearing on shelves by mid-2015 with ‘No Artificial Flavours or Colours’ claims marked on their packages.

“Nestlé is the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company and our commitment to remove artificial flavours and certified colours in our chocolate candy brands is an important milestone,” says Doreen Ida, president, Nestlé USA Confections & Snacks.

“We know that candy consumers are interested in broader food trends around fewer artificial ingredients. As we thought about what this means for our candy brands, our first step has been to remove artificial flavours and colours without affecting taste or increasing the price. We’re excited to be the first major US candy manufacturer to make this commitment.”