The Guardian Business · Экономика · 14 ч назад
Remaking the biscuit: from Doritos to digestives, why the UK’s snacks are being ‘reformulated’
Healthy eating rules are forcing brands to recook their recipes. Are consumers noticing the difference? Bite into a Ritz cracker today and you’re eating 80% less saturated fat than you would have been just a few years ago. The biscuit looks and snaps the same, and tastes close enough that most buyers have no idea they’re eating a new recipe. One of the biggest changes was swapping palm oil for sunflower oil, but ther…
Подробности
The RSSL lab testing the break of a biscuit. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian View image in fullscreen The RSSL lab testing the break of a biscuit. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian Food Remaking the biscuit: from Doritos to digestives, why the UK’s snacks are being ‘reformulated’ Healthy eating rules are forcing brands to recook their recipes. Are consumers noticing the difference?
Sarah Marsh Consumer affairs correspondent Sat 29 Aug 2026 12.00 BST Last modified on Sat 29 Aug 2026 12.02 BST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google B ite into a Ritz cracker today and you’re eating 80% less saturated fat than you would have been just a few years ago. The biscuit looks and snaps the same, and tastes close enough that most buyers have no idea they’re eating a new recipe.
One of the biggest changes was swapping palm oil for sunflower oil, but there was much more to it than that. The reformulation took years to perfect in a laboratory, where scientists tested everything from density to how the cracker responds to heat, moisture and packaging.
Earlier this month at the Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL) – the lab where, for many of Britain’s snack foods, recipes go to get rebuilt – that tension is being discussed. Mondelēz International, the global food and beverage giant behind Oreo and Ritz, has invested £40m since 2020 in reformulation work.
The UK is now the company’s largest research and development hub anywhere in the world, with more than 750 scientists and engineers working across nutrition and product innovation at Bournville consumer research centre and RSSL.