An entrepreneur is coming to the rescue of frustrated nut allergy sufferers with a new "Nutella-type" chocolate spread and peanut butter - made without nuts.

Food innovation specialist Moving Food is launching nut-free No Nut Nutty Choc Spread (rsp: £2.75/ 328g jar) into Tesco and Asda this spring, having already won listings for the spread at selected Holland & Barrett stores in October last year.

It is also developing a nut-free peanut butter that it hopes to offer to the market in a couple of months.

Both had similar taste profiles to their nutty equivalents, said Stephen Minall, joint owner of Moving Food and former MD of Compass Eire.

The chocolate spread contained 100% organic cocoa, natural fruit sweetener Fruit Up and vitamin E, and natural flavourings that together created a hazelnut taste, he said.

The idea for the innovation had come about after an airline asked his company to develop "a Nutella-type dessert containing no nuts", he added.

"This foodservice product was introduced last summer and since then we have been working on developing the concept to turn it into a spread fit for retail," he said. "Our No Nut spreads will plug a gap in the mainstream retail sector and we are confident they will generate sales in the region of £700,000 by the end of 2012."

Further nut-free retail products, including frosting for homebaking and own-label foods, were in the pipeline, he added.

Minall runs York-based Moving Food alongside Bhasker Dhir, who was previously the head of foodservice at Asda.

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