Good news, Percy Pig fans. You can now get your favourite pig-shaped sweets with 36% less sugar.
M&S has launched the reduced sugar version for people who are keen to cut down a little but still want to enjoy a treat.
The bags promise they still have the same fruity flavour of original Percy.
They’ve spent 18 months developing the new addition to the line, which is still made with real fruit juice and no artificial colours or flavourings.
M&S Percy Product Developer Natalie Tate says: ‘As customers are increasingly aware of their sugar intake, our new Reduced Sugar Percy Pigs are perfect for any Percy Pigs fans who love the fruity flavour but are looking to cut down their sugar a little.’
The original bags contain 58.8g of sugar per 100g, while the new reduced-sugar version contains 37.5g of sugar per 100g.
The reduction in sugar also means the new sweets are lower in calories – 320 per 100g, compared to the original’s 346.
Both bags are on sale for £1.65 so less sugar doesn’t mean a reduction in price.
The sweets are, of course, gelatine free after M&S made the entire Percy Pig range completely vegetarian in April this year.
Back then, people were outraged by the change to the recipe, so much so, the supermarket even held a public tasting to decide whether to keep the gelatine free version or return to the original recipe for all the sweets.
Even Piers Morgan got involved telling people to ‘leave our pig sweets alone’ on TV.
In the end, the vegetarian recipe won and now it’s here to stay. The entire range is now vegetarian (but not vegan as all the sweets contain beeswax).
What do the reduced sugar Percy Pigs taste like?
We picked up a packet of original (well new recipe gelatine-free original) and reduced sugar Percy Pigs to compare.
Appearance
On first look, the reduced sugar Percy Pigs look similar but side by side, you can see they are darker in colour, flatter and quite stiff.
Taste
While they don’t taste bad, they don’t taste the same. The fruit flavour is still there but it doesn’t seem as strong and the taste is just slightly different.
Texture
The biggest difference is the texture – they are harder, chewier and the face just isn’t as soft as the original.
All in all, they taste nice but if you’ve tried the original they’re just too different to give you that same experience. Great for those cutting down on sugar but Percy Pig stans beware.
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