Mars is cutting the dreaded satfats in its eponymous chocolate bars by 15%.

It’s a welcome (if costly) move that, unsurprisingly, has played well with today’s papers, including the Sun and the Daily Mail.

Not that it’s news to the trade, of course. The Grocer broke the story in January, in our second edition of the year. In the third edition, Mars UK boss Fiona Dawson penned a Saturday Essay explaining why “looking after a brand doesn't mean standing still”.

Today the revamped bars hit shops, as part of a drive by the confectioner to take another chunk out of Cadbury.

“I’m not going to pretend chocolate is ever going to be healthy,” Dawson tells the Sun today, displaying Andy Clarke-like levels of candour. “It’s about future-proofing our business; thinking about the future, when consumers will want to know even more about products.”

She points out that “you don’t spend £10m on a PR stunt” – although Cadbury has spent millions tying its purple colours to the Olympic mast.

These things don’t always go as planned, of course. Mars must have rued plastering a patriotic St George’s cross all over its packaging when the Three Lions skulked back from South Africa as feebly as that cat that got stuffed in a wheelie-bin.

But with the Dairy Milk maker this month kicking off its ‘Spots v Stripes’ drive to get the nation active, it’s nice for Mars to put some more substance behind that old claim about helping you work, rest and play.

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