Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Iconic sweet goes natural

All-natural may be all the rage in the food world, but will candy lovers have a sweet tooth for beet juice and purple cabbage?

Necco sure hopes so. The 162-year-old Massachusetts company is taking its Necco Wafers all-natural, making them the largest mass-produced candy line in the United States to shed artificial flavoring and colors.

Necco, short for New England Confectionary Co., cranks out about 4 billion of the wafers each year. Beet juice, purple cabbage, cocoa powder and turmeric are some of the natural ingredients in the new wafers.