Nestlé UK Trials Regenerative Farmed Wheat in KitKats

Nestlé is teaming up with regenerative food and farming brand Wildfarmed, working with a community of British farmers to trial regeneratively farmed wheat in its KitKat chocolate bars.

Trials to use a proportion of the wheat in the wafer started last year in Nestlé’s factory in York, England, and now it will be used in the 1.5 billion KitKat bars made in the city every year.  

The taste and snap of the KitKat wafer won’t change, Nestlé said, but the wheat will up its sustainability game.

The wheat comes from Wildfarmed’s community of British farmers who follow a set of standards based on holistic farming practices aimed at reducing environmental impact and bringing life back to soil. These practices focus on the key principles of regenerative agriculture and include limiting soil disturbance, maintaining year-round soil cover, promoting plant diversity and keeping living roots in the soil.

Together, these practices help to increase field and farm biodiversity, improve soil health, minimize water pollution and reduce carbon, said Nestlé.

Wildfarmed was founded by Andy Cato, George Lamb and Edd Lees, and they set out to build a community of farmers who are dedicated to farming in a way that restores soil health and improves the impact on the environment, bringing nature back to farms and landscapes.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Wildfarmed,” said Dr. Emma Keller, head of sustainability at Nestlé UK and Ireland. “This collaboration is all about making the KitKat everyone has known and loved for the last 90 years in an even more sustainable way, all while supporting British wheat farmers to adopt regenerative farming practices that are intended to support carbon reduction and increase biodiversity. With this partnership, it's not just about growing crops a bit differently; it’s about working to grow and support a more sustainable future for farmers and the landscapes we depend on. 

"As a large food and drink company with a diverse supply chain underpinned by a network of farmers, collaboration is essential to help us achieve our sustainability goals. Wildfarmed is helping us lead the charge to ensure that our much-loved KitKat bars are made with sustainability at their core.”

Edd Lees, Wildfarmed CEO and co-founder, said, “Wildfarmed exists to make resilient, nature-rich farming mainstream. For too long, nature has effectively been priced at zero in our food system. Farmers have been pushed to maximize yield, often at the expense of soil, biodiversity and resilience. We believe it’s time to flip that model. 1.5 billion KitKat bars are made every year in the UK. Partnering with Nestlé to use regenerative British wheat is a big step forward in our mission to make regenerative farming the default, not the exception, and prove that nature restoration can sit at the heart of iconic brands.”

This collaboration is a chapter in Nestlé’s broader commitment to reduce its environmental footprint while serving up high-quality products, the company said.

The partnership with Wildfarmed builds on 22 years of working with British dairy collective First Milk, whose Ayrshire dairy farmers also look after soil, rotate crops and encourage biodiversity to make the milk for the chocolate products made in Yorkshire, and whose Cumbrian farmers help create the frothy coffees in Nestlé’s factory in Cumbria, the company said.