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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Sarah Marsh Consumer affairs correspondent

Remaking the biscuit: from Doritos to digestives, why the UK’s snacks are being ‘reformulated’

A lab technician observes in the background as a machine with a pointed instrument breaks a biscuit in half
The RSSL lab testing the break of a biscuit. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

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 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.

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