Frequently Asked Questions
Three main things have been updated for the new OVALTINE® recipe. First, all three flavors now are a good
source of 12 essential vitamins and minerals. Previously, the malt beverages had eight vitamins and minerals, while
Rich Chocolate already had 12 vitamins and minerals.
Second, we’ve removed the artificial flavors and use colors made from natural sources. These changes were made to
support our consumers in their desire to choose simpler, more natural food products.
Finally, we reduced the recommended amount of powder per serving from 4 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons. We found
that most consumers were already only using 2 tablespoons, so we adjusted the recipe to match consumers’
current habits. The new reduced serving size for OVALTINE yields about half the amount of sugar as a direct
result of this reduction.
In terms of taste, our aim was to maintain or improve the taste of OVALTINE (or as we call it, the flavor profile).
We tested our products thoroughly with our consumers to make sure we were doing the right thing. We are happy to
report we accomplished our goal, as the new formulas either show no difference or increased preference compared to the old formulation.
All of our changes were made after listening and talking with our consumers, and understanding what was important to
them about OVALTINE. Please know we took the utmost care when making these changes to ensure they were viewed as
improvements to the product.
OVALTINE is a trusted brand that’s been helping kids get their vitamins and minerals for more than 100 years. But
what individuals and families with kids are looking for in food products has changed.
We saw the need to evolve the recipe to match contemporary nutritional needs and remain relevant to what family’s
desire for their kids today – making sure they get proper nutrition, limiting their sugar intake, and choosing simpler,
more natural food products.
Our goal is to meet our valued consumers' expectations, while helping develop healthy eating habits, like drinking milk.
This is the first recipe change for OVALTINE since it became a NESTLÉ® brand. Before 2007, OVALTINE was owned by
Himmel, and NESTLÉ is not aware of any recipe modifications made by the former company.
All three flavors have consistent amounts of vitamins and minerals across the board. The changes are a little bit
different between our Rich Chocolate and our malt beverages.
With Rich Chocolate, we updated our recipe to eliminate artificial flavor, use colors from natural
sources, and now provide a better balanced nutrition profile that offers a good source of 12 vitamins and minerals.
Vitamins A, C, E, B1, B6, niacin and biotin, along with calcium, iron, zinc and copper were already in OVALTINE Rich
Chocolate and are now provided at a good source level–meaning they offer 10 percent of the Daily Value. In addition, we’ve
added vitamin D, also at the good source level.
In our Chocolate Malt and Classic Malt products, we updated our recipe to eliminate artificial flavor,
and now provide a better balanced nutrition profile that offers a good source of 12 vitamins and minerals for all
three varieties of OVALTINE. The two malt varieties were already made with colors from natural sources.
Vitamins A, C, B1, B6, D and niacin, along with calcium and iron were already in OVALTINE Classic Malt recipe and are
now provided at a good source level–meaning they offer 10 percent of the Daily Value for these nutrients. In addition,
we’ve added vitamin E, biotin, zinc and copper, also at the good source level.
Across all OVALTINE products, the serving size was reduced to 2 tablespoons from 4 tablespoons.
We wanted to provide a better balanced nutrition profile that offers a good source of 12 vitamins and minerals, across
the total OVALTINE line. Now all three flavors have consistent amounts of vitamins and minerals across the board.
For the Malts, vitamins A, C, B1, B6, D and niacin, along with calcium and iron were already in OVALTINE Chocolate Malt –
and are now provided at a good source level (meaning they offer 10 percent of Daily Value for these nutrients). In
addition, we’ve added four new vitamins and minerals–vitamin E, biotin, zinc and copper–also at the good source level.
We use caramel color and beet juice color.
We changed the recommended serving size from 4 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons per 8 oz of milk. We keep an open
dialogue with our consumers and, as a result, understood that most were preparing their OVALTINE with 2 tablespoons,
not 4 as directed on the old packaging.
We validated this through consumer research, and took the opportunity to change the recommended serving size on the
package to match what consumers were already doing. While we’ve reduced the serving size of OVALTINE, it is still
intended to be mixed with the same amount of milk as before (1 cup).
The new reduced serving size for OVALTINE yields about half the amount of sugar as a direct result of reducing the
serving size to be consistent with how most consumers were using it. (See above information about the serving size change.)
We definitely kept our longtime, loyal consumers in the forefront of our minds when we created the new recipe.
As a matter of fact, we made sure to test our new product with our loyal users to make sure it met their high standards
for the product. We are happy to report all the new formulas passed our loyal consumer tests with flying colors.