Nestlé Ireland says it is stripping out 10% of sugar from its products by 2018.

The move will see around 400 tonnes of sugar removed across a number of well-known brands.

Nestlé brands include Aero, Drifter, KitKat, Lion, Milkybar, Rolo, Quality Street and Yorkie.

The changes will largely see the sweet-maker replacing sugar with higher quantities of existing ingredients or other, non-artificial ones.

It says this is to make sure products are below a certain amount of calories.

Image: Flickr/Nestlé

CEO of Nestlé UK and Ireland, Fiona Kendrick, said: "Our confectionery brands have been enjoyed in the UK for more than a century and we know that if we can improve these products nutritionally, provide more choice and information for the consumer, together with other categories, we can have a significant impact on public health.

"Nestlé is at the forefront of efforts to research and develop new technology that makes food products better for our consumers.

"These innovations will help us to reduce sugar in confectionery when they are combined with other, more common methods like reformulating recipes and swapping sugar for other, non artificial ingredients.

"Making these improvements to our products is key to us delivering better choices for our consumers while retaining the same great taste that they know and love."

The firm has already announced plans to reduce added sugars in products globally by 5% by 2020.

It says it is in the process of patenting new sugar technology.