The last years of the 20 century saw a change in Nestlé’s business strategy. The company moved from being a technology led company that produced convenient, tasty foods and beverages for sustenance, to being a science driven, nutrition, health and wellness company.
Size matters: How do you know if your pet is overweight?Key consumer benefits: Weight management
Studies show that over a 1/3 of pet owners think their pet is overweight. But many owners don’t realise or know what actions to take to get them back in shape. Experts at Nestlé Purina have developed a simple tool that asks people to get hands-on, to help identify their dog or cat’s true body condition. The tool is supported with other interactive applications and articles with lots of help and advice. There are also diaries following real life case studies which address the complicated issues around weight management to help motivate owners facing similar problems.
The importance is clear when you realise helping an overweight pet to lose weight could add up to 2 years to their life, and add life to their years. For all the details go to the Purina website 
Sensational pleasure from LA LAITIÈRE Key consumer benefits: Indulgence and pleasure
Feuilleté de Mousse is an innovative new dessert under the LA LAITIÈRE brand. It was launched in March 2009 in France and Belgium. This product provides a unique combination of textures and flavours, combining a light, aerated, creamy mousse with a thin, cracking chocolate marble. This sophisticated product is the culmination of several years of R&D at Nestlé’s Product Technology Centre in Lisieux, which specialises in the technology and know-how for chilled dairy products world-wide.
The patented technology* used in
Feuilleté de Mousse is already the third patent on providing the benefit of solid chocolate in a dairy matrix, building on the patented process used in LA LAITIÈRE
Craquant et Fondant chilled dessert, available in France and Belgium. Innovation in
Feuilleté de Mousse extends beyond the dessert to the pots.
The packaging teams of PTC Lisieux and LNPF(Lactalis Nestlé Produits Frais) have designed the perfectly transparent pots in such a way that, with a gentle squeeze, the chocolate detaches easily from the sides. So consumers can enjoy this dessert right down to the very last crumb.
* patent application pending grant.
Easy opening and side pouringKey consumer benefits: Convenience
Pouring dry pet food has never been easier thanks to an innovative new design from Nestlé Purina PetCare. The patented advantages are that the bags are easy to open, they are reclosable and they have a side-carrying handle. Opening is made easy by a novel laser-made perforation in the top corner of the bag, and pouring is made easy by having the handle on the side instead of on the top of the bag. The new bag design is used for Purina Pro Plan and Purina ONE, Beneful and Bakers dry dog and cat foods in 3-6kg formats. Lighter weight formats of Purina Premium and Superpremium dry dog and cat foods take advantage of the new easy opening technology.
Affordable fortified milksKey consumer benefits: Affordable nutrition
Making good nutrition affordable is one of many challenges for Nestlé R&D. World-wide, malnutrition in children includes micronutrient deficiencies in iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc. This problem is especially common in developing countries, and therefore the problem affects large numbers of consumers who have low disposable incomes. Milk is a good source of nutrition. It is also a good carrier of micronutrients, and so Nestlé scientists are developing recipes for fortified growing up milks that address local nutrition needs. Nestlé has various approaches for making these milks affordable, such as sourcing milk from local farmers, manufacturing products locally, and using local distribution networks. In addition, Nestlé R&D has been developing new packaging solutions that also help to make the products affordable.
Examples of Nestlé’s affordable growing up milks: Central and West Africa: NIDO ESSENTIA
Brazil: IDEAL
Mexico: NIDO RINDES DIARIO
Malaysia and Sri Lanka: NESPRAY
Philippines: BEAR BRAND
The Caribbean: KLIM
Watch a
film about Nestlé fortified milk in Guinea, Africa.
Crunch Nougat Rolls: Indulgent breakfast cereals with whole grains, minerals and vitaminsKey consumer benefits: Indulgence and nutrition
Pillow breakfast cereals (filled cereal rolls) are very popular in Israel where they represent approximately 15% of the breakfast cereals market. R&D Sderot has developed a new pillows type of breakfast cereal for the Israeli market, Crunch Nougat Rolls, which consumers appreciate for its sensory properties without compromising on nutrition.
Crunch Nougat Rolls are composed of cereal rolls filled with delicious chocolate-nougat cream. The product provides balanced nutrition with whole grains, vitamins and minerals.
Yang Sheng Le: Soup base with Chinese herbsKey consumer benefits: Nutrition
In Chinese “Yang Sheng Le” means the “joy of keeping in good health”. Yang Sheng Le™ is a new range of concentrated herbal soups developed at Nestlé’s R&D Centre in Singapore. This product combines tradition and science to deliver taste, nutrition, convenience, naturalness and tradition in one product. For more information please visit the
Nestlé Singapore website.
Pensierini filled pasta: Balanced nutritional composition, Vitamin E, CalciumKey consumer benefits: Nutrition
Pensierini filled pasta, with its different bite-sized shapes such as hearts, stars, sunflowers, is a “meal time” moment of enjoyment for children.
Pensierini Colours was developed by culinary experts and scientists at R&D Sansepolcro (Casa Buitoni). They have now improved the recipe, and introduced a new shell shape. Pensierini are naturally coloured by vegetables in the dough.
For each recipe there’s a communication about nutrition benefits such as Vitamin E for the recipe with peas (green ones) and Calcium for the recipe with carrots (orange ones). The Nutritional Compass on the back of pack provides additional nutrition information.
Maggi noodles: Less fat, less salt – same great tasteKey consumer benefits: Health (Weight management)
Experts working at the Nestlé R&D centre in Singapore identified two conflicting demands: consumers wanted healthy foods, but they also wanted noodles with the same salty and fried taste. A new recipe was developed that replaced part of the sodium with potassium. Additional ingredients were also added to enhance the taste of the remaining lower salt level.
A totally new drying process was developed to replace the frying method. The noodles are dried in a stream of very hot high-velocity air. Further research identified the components in noodles that generate the desired fried taste. This research was used to create a natural “fried flavour” concentrate which was then added as an ingredient to the air-dried noodles. The team reduced salt content by about 25% and fat by at least 70%.
Light ice-cream: Low Temperature freezing – ½ the fat with all the pleasureKey consumer benefits: Pleasure, Health (Weight management)
It was only in the 1990s that technology was developed to make low-fat ice cream with the same rich texture and taste as regular ice creams. First, Nestlé in Switzerland and then Dreyer’s in the US worked on a process called “extrusion freezing”. Nestlé was already using extrusion cooking for breakfast cereals. The challenge was to transfer the technology from cereals to ice cream, in effect by turning the extrusion-cooker into a freezer. It took R&D almost a decade to perfect this technology.
But how do we get half the fat with all the taste?
By “destabilising” the tiny fat droplets in the product, half the fat goes twice as far. This changes the ice cream’s microstructure so that it feels and tastes the same as full-fat ice cream. Nestlé now has global patents, covering both the technology and the products. Watch the film.
Protection through probiotics
Key consumer benefits: Health (Protection)
Probiotic bacteria, so called “friendly bacteria”, are naturally present in the digestive system. The best known are the Bifidus bacteria that exist in many of the bio or live yoghurts. There are also many strains of Lactobacillae, a probiotic bacteria which Nestlé researchers had started to work on back in 1964. Unlike Bifidus bacteria the Lactobacillae bacteria exists and thrives in an acid environment which means it can survive the passage through the stomach and remain intact in the intestinal tract where it has its beneficial effects. Probiotics have been shown to benefit intestinal function and to help decrease the growth of undesirable bacteria.
Examples of products containing probiotics:
LC1 Yoghurt: After many years of research the first Nestlé probiotic yoghurt, LC1, came on the market in France in September 1994. The product was rolled out in Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Germany and the UK. LC1 is successfully helping the digestion and immune system of thousands of consumers worldwide.
NAN Infant formula: Probiotic technology has now also been added to infant formula. Good bacteria are usually passed via mother to baby during breast feeding. For those infants unable to breast feed the probiotic infant formula has proved successful at encouraging the development of good bacteria in the intestines and therefore stimulating the immune system. This reduces the frequency of digestive problems like diarrhoea. It was a research challenge to keep the bacteria alive within the dry infant formula and over coming this has been key to Nestlé's success in this area. Read more about this new generation of infant formula
Inneov: Innéov Solaire with Skin Probiotic is a breakthrough probiotic which helps protect the skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Solaire works from the inside out, consumed orally as a nutritional supplement, rather than applied topically like a lotion. In the body, Solaire creates tiny amounts of health-promoting substances that circulate in the blood stream, activating the skin’s natural immune defenses, which consequently helps prevent sun damage. Innéov Solaire is intended as a complement to sun protection cream, which is vital. Sensible and appropriate behaviour in the sun is also essential. Inneov website
Foam Booster – Creating the perfect cappuccino at homeKey consumer benefits: Pleasure and convenience
Busy consumers expressed a wish to enjoy a real Italian cappuccino, where ever thy were - at home, work or on the move. The challenge for Nestlé R&D was to create a product that captured the magic of Italian cappuccino - especially the creamy foam. Researchers studied the science of foams and developed a new technology called “Foam Booster”. Foam Booster granules are tiny particles of carbohydrates and proteins that are full of minute holes. The holes are filled at high pressure with nitrogen gas – which is the main component of air. Nitrogen is trapped in the Foam Booster at about 35 times atmospheric pressure – 15 to 20 times the pressure in car tyres. The nitrogen is not released until it comes in to contact with hot water, lifting the creamer to the surface to form an instant milky foam. The coffee stays below to form the brown base. The result? A perfect cappuccino.