Nestlé continues to defend its brand: Milo only contains 6% sugar if recommended preparation is followed
Milo’s manufacturer said the popular chocolate malt drink did not have excessive amounts of sugar after a video on Milo’s high sugar content went viral recently.
On January 25, 2018, Vishen Lakhiani founder and CEO of education technology company Mindvalley posted a video on Malaysia’s favourite beverage, Nestlé Milo. The video which went viral garnered 11, 500 shares and 400k views in less than 2 days. Especially to Malaysians, since who can forget the Milo truck coming to school handing out the chocolate beverage?
Here is the video:
Nestlé then issued a press release stating that “Milo is made with milk, malt (barley) and cocoa powder and contain vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, B1, B2 and C. Over 50% of the total sugars in MILO come from milk and malt. We try to keep the amount of sugar we add to a minimum – adding only 6g of sugar for every 200ml serving, which is about 1 teaspoon of sugar.”
On February 2, 2018, Vishen responded back to Nestlé with another video. He stated that “behind each Milo tin, it states add 3 teaspoons of Milo. 3 teaspoons of Milo is roughly 9 grams of sugar”. He then went on to equate the 9 grams of sugar with three Nestlé Bon Bon candies, which contain three grams of sugar each. On top of all that, he pointed out that the amount of sugar in a glass of Milo is about 20 grams, which comes close to the World Health Organisation’s daily recommended sugar consumption for adults (25 grams).
Here is the video:
“In Malaysia, because of Nestlé’s marketing that says Milo is healthy, people feel it’s justified to add sweetened condensed milk on top of their Milo, creating a sugar bomb with up to 40 grams of sugar into a child in the morning before sending them to school.”
Once again, Nestlé has released another press release pertaining to the benefits and nutritional value of Milo.
Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad senior nutritionist Nurul Iliani Ahmad released a statement that the recommended preparation is to add 5 teaspoons of MILO into 200ml of hot water. This serving contains only 6% sugar. Out of this 6%, 3% is natural sugar (from milk and malt) and 3% is added sugar. The 40% sugar shown on the label refers to MILO powder before water is added. When added with 200ml water, the sugar content is 6% of the total drink. This includes natural sugar from milk and malt.
MARKETING has reached out to Nestle Malaysia’s Media Relations Manager, Maxine Lim who said that the facts in the video were misleading. “The 40 percent sugar was in an undiluted form. When added 200ml of water which is a normal glass, the sugar content is only 6 percent”.
MARKETING magazine have reached out to Mindvalley and are currently awaiting their responses.
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