BTS Zero Added Sugar spread and the regular chocolate hazelnut spread differ mostly on two ingredients: sweetener and oil. The regular declares sugar first and palm oil second, with 56.3 g of sugar per 100 g. BTS Zero Added Sugar spread uses monk fruit and allulose with coconut and groundnut oil, and carries 3.3 g, all milk sugar.
If you're looking for a sugar free Nutella alternative in India, those are the lines to read.
And the regular is upfront about one thing: sugar is the first word on its ingredients list. Indian labels list ingredients heaviest first, so sugar is the biggest thing in the jar. More than half of it, by weight.
Here are both labels, line by line. The regular's figures are from the brand's Indian website, read on 5 October 2026. Ours are from our own pack.
| On the label | The regular | BTS Zero Added Sugar spread |
|---|---|---|
| Sweetened with | Sugar (first ingredient) | Monk fruit and allulose |
| Total sugars per 100 g | 56.3 g | 3.3 g |
| Of which milk sugar (lactose) | About 4.3 to 4.5 g (estimated) | 3.3 g, all of it |
| Sugar per 15 g serving | 8.4 g | About 0.5 g |
| Oil | Palm oil (second ingredient) | Coconut oil and groundnut oil |
| Milk | 8.7% skimmed milk powder | Milk solids |
| Flavouring | Vanillin | No artificial flavour |
| Preservatives | None declared | None |
| Energy per 100 g | 533 kcal | 489 kcal |
| Saturated fat per 100 g | 10.6 g | 5.58 g |
| Price per 15 g serving, at MRP | About ₹17 (₹399 for 350 g) | About ₹30 (₹599 for 300 g) |
The regular's milk sugar is our estimate: its declared 8.7% skimmed milk powder, multiplied by the 49.5 to 52% lactose that skim milk powder typically contains. Everything else in its column is as published, apart from the price per serving, which is the MRP divided out.
How much sugar is in each jar?
The regular chocolate hazelnut spread carries 56.3 g of total sugars per 100 g, about 52 g of it added and the rest milk sugar from skimmed milk powder. BTS Zero Added Sugar spread carries 3.3 g per 100 g, all lactose from milk solids. Per 15 g serving, that's 8.4 g of sugar against roughly 0.5 g.
Both jars have milk in them, so both carry some lactose. Skim milk powder is about half lactose (49.5 to 52%, per the US Dairy Export Council's milk powder reference), which puts roughly 4.3 to 4.5 g of milk sugar in 100 g of the regular.
So the milk sugar in the two jars is about a gram apart. The real difference is the other 52 g.
Now per serving. The brand's own website calls 15 g "about a teaspoon" and puts 8.4 g of sugar in it. That's roughly two level teaspoons of sugar inside one teaspoon of spread.
The ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 keep added sugar under 5% of energy, which works out to 20 to 25 g a day for an adult. One serving of the regular uses about a third of that. Two spoons on toast, which is how most of us actually eat it, use two-thirds or more.
Our 15 g serving carries about 0.5 g of sugar, and none of it is added.
What replaces the sugar in a zero added sugar spread?
In a zero added sugar chocolate spread, two ingredients do the work sugar used to do. Monk fruit supplies the sweetness at up to 200 times the strength of sugar, so very little is needed. Allulose, a rare sugar, supplies the bulk and body that 52 g of sugar used to give the jar.
That body matters more than people expect. Sugar is more than half of the regular jar by weight, so it's the structure of the jar as much as its sweetness.
Swap it for a sweetener used by the pinch and nothing fills the space. You'd be left with a thin, oily paste.
Allulose fills it. Chemically it's a close relative of fructose, but the body has no enzyme to break it down: it's absorbed and excreted largely unchanged, according to a 2022 review in the British Journal of Nutrition by Daniel and colleagues.
Published estimates put allulose at 0.2 to 0.4 calories per gram, against sugar's 4. Our guide covers what allulose is and why it's called a rare sugar.
Allulose is also about 70% as sweet as sugar. That's why monk fruit sits beside it, and each covers what the other can't.
There's no sugar alcohol in the jar either. No maltitol and no erythritol, two bulking sweeteners common in no-sugar chocolate products.
Is "zero added sugar" the same as sugar-free?
Zero added sugar and sugar-free are different claims. Under FSSAI's Advertising and Claims Regulations, 2018, a food can be called sugar-free only at 0.5 g of sugars per 100 g or less. BTS Zero Added Sugar spread carries 3.3 g of lactose per 100 g, so it's zero added sugar and not sugar-free. The name on the jar says exactly that.
It does sit inside the same regulations' low-sugar line of 5 g per 100 g.
The 3.3 g comes from milk solids, and milk is where the creaminess comes from. Removing it to qualify as sugar-free would have produced a different spread.
"No added sugar" is a promise about what went in. The total is on the panel, and our guide explains the difference between no added sugar and sugar-free on an Indian label.
Read the ingredients list on any jar anyway. In July 2026 FSSAI questioned a biscuit maker over a "No Added Sugar" claim on a pack that listed maltodextrin and glucose syrup solids, as Outlook India reported.
On a chocolate spread, the ingredients worth spotting under a no added sugar or no refined sugar banner are maltodextrin, glucose syrup, jaggery, date paste and honey. Each one puts sugar, or something the body handles like sugar, into the jar.
Why does the regular use palm oil?
Palm oil is in the regular chocolate hazelnut spread because it stays semi-solid at room temperature, which gives a spread its spoonable body, and because it's cheap. BTS Zero Added Sugar spread uses coconut oil and groundnut oil instead, and declares no palm oil anywhere on its label.
So why leave palm oil out? The most specific reason is what happens to oil in a refinery.
In 2016 the European Food Safety Authority reported that glycidyl esters and 3-MCPD, contaminants that form when vegetable oils are refined at around 200°C, were found at the highest levels in palm oils and palm fats. EFSA judged glycidol genotoxic and carcinogenic and set no safe level for it.
The same report found glycidyl ester levels in palm oil had halved between 2010 and 2015, as producers changed how they refine. So glycidyl esters are falling, 3-MCPD levels hadn't moved, and every refined vegetable oil carries some of both. Palm oil carried the most.
Does a zero added sugar spread have fewer calories?
The calorie gap between a zero added sugar spread and the regular is much smaller than the sugar gap. The regular carries 533 kcal per 100 g against 489 for BTS Zero Added Sugar spread, and only about 210 of the regular's come from added sugar. The rest come from hazelnuts, oil and milk, which both jars contain.
That's the arithmetic of any chocolate hazelnut spread. The regular carries 30.9 g of fat per 100 g, and fat carries 9 calories a gram, so roughly 280 calories per 100 g come from fat before sugar is counted at all.
The sweeteners add very little. Allulose sits at 0.2 to 0.4 calories per gram: the low end is from a 2022 systematic review in Nutrition Reviews by Ahmed and colleagues, and the FDA tells US labels to use 0.4. Monk fruit is used in amounts too small to register.
BTS Zero Added Sugar spread comes in at 489 kcal per 100 g, against 533: about 8% fewer.
So if you're counting calories, count spoons. If you're counting sugar, the two jars aren't close.
What do "net carbs" mean on a chocolate spread label?
Net carbs on BTS Zero Added Sugar spread means total carbohydrate minus dietary fibre and minus allulose, because the body doesn't metabolise allulose. On that basis the jar carries about 80% fewer net carbs than a conventional chocolate hazelnut spread. Measured on total carbohydrate alone, the gap is smaller.
Net carbs is a convention, and brands calculate it differently. So check how any jar gets to its number. Ours subtracts fibre and allulose, and says so.
For comparison, the FDA keeps allulose inside Total Carbohydrate on a US label while leaving it out of Total Sugars and Added Sugars, under its October 2020 final guidance. Our guide explains why allulose stays off the sugars line but inside total carbohydrate.
If you're keto, net carbs are the number you track, and on that number the jar is keto-friendly. If you track total carbohydrate instead, read that line on the panel and use it.
The regular makes this simple, for what it's worth. Its 57.5 g of carbohydrate per 100 g is almost entirely its 56.3 g of sugar.
Who should switch to a zero added sugar spread?
Switch to a zero added sugar spread if the jar is a daily habit, like toast every morning or a spoon after dinner. That's where two spoons a day turn into most of a day's added sugar. If a jar of the regular lasts you three months, the sugar it adds to your year is small, and the switch matters less.
That's the honest version, and it's the useful one. The jar that matters is the one you open every day.
If you're diabetic or pre-diabetic, half a gram of sugar a serving is one less thing to plan around. Fat and calories still count, so trust your meter over our word. Our guide on how the main sweeteners compare for a diabetic covers the sweeteners themselves.
If you're keto, net carbs are the line that matters, and the method behind ours is stated above.
And if you want the sweetening without the spread, the same monk fruit and allulose blend is sold as a sweetener for chai, coffee and baking.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Nutella alternative without sugar in India?
Yes. BTS Zero Added Sugar spread, from Beyond The Sugar, is a chocolate hazelnut spread with no added sugar, sweetened with monk fruit and allulose and made without palm oil. It carries 3.3 g of sugar per 100 g, all of it lactose from milk solids, against 56.3 g in the regular chocolate hazelnut spread.
How much sugar is in one spoon of Nutella?
The brand's Indian website lists 8.4 g of total sugars in a 15 g serving, which it describes as about a teaspoon. That's roughly two level teaspoons of sugar inside one teaspoon of spread, and about a third of the 20 to 25 g of added sugar a day that ICMR-NIN suggests for an adult.
Why does a zero added sugar spread show sugar on the label?
Because milk contains sugar: BTS Zero Added Sugar spread carries 3.3 g of total sugars per 100 g, and all of it is lactose from the milk solids that make the spread creamy. Nothing sweet was added on top. The regular chocolate hazelnut spread carries a similar amount of milk sugar plus about 52 g of added sugar.
Is BTS Zero Added Sugar spread vegan or dairy-free?
BTS Zero Added Sugar spread isn't vegan: it contains milk solids, which is also where its 3.3 g of lactose per 100 g comes from. The regular chocolate hazelnut spread contains skimmed milk powder, so neither jar is vegan. If you avoid dairy, look for a spread that declares no milk at all, then check what sweetens it.
Can diabetics eat a zero added sugar chocolate spread?
Yes, with your meter as the judge: a 15 g serving of BTS Zero Added Sugar spread carries about 0.5 g of sugar. Allulose, one of its two sweeteners, has trial evidence of lowering the post-meal glucose rise, including a 2024 Metabolism Open analysis in type 2 diabetes. Fat and calories still count, so portions still matter.
Does BTS Zero Added Sugar spread contain palm oil?
No. BTS Zero Added Sugar spread uses coconut oil and groundnut oil, while the regular chocolate hazelnut spread declares palm oil second on its ingredients list. Leaving palm oil out avoids the oil EFSA found carrying the highest levels of refining contaminants in 2016.
Why does a zero added sugar spread cost more than the regular?
Because of what replaces the cheap ingredients. Monk fruit and allulose cost several times what sugar does, and coconut oil costs more than palm oil. At MRP, BTS Zero Added Sugar spread works out to about ₹30 per 15 g serving against about ₹17 for the regular chocolate hazelnut spread, roughly 75% more.
If the jar in your cupboard gets opened every day, read its first ingredient tonight. Then put BTS Zero Added Sugar spread next to it and judge it yourself.