PURCHASE, N.Y. -- PepsiCo is going right to the heart of the problem. After five years of backlash--and subsequent sales declines--over the perceived dangers of the zero-calorie sweetener aspartame, the beverage maker said today it will replace its current Diet Pepsi offerings in the United States with new formulations that are free of aspartame.
The change will include Diet Pepsi, Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi, all of which will be sweetened with a blend of sucralose and acesulfame potassium beginning in August.
Carbonated-soft-drink sales in the United States have been on the decline for a decade, primarily on the argument that full-sugar formulations are empty calories. The decline recently included a 1% dip in sales in 2014 and a 3.2% drop in 2013, according to Beverage Marketing Corp.
In convenience stores, the decline hasn’t been as dramatic. Chicago-based IRI reports CSD unit sales in c-stores were generally flat (down 0.1%) in 2014 following a 1.4% decline in 2013 and a 5.8% drop the previous year.
The backlash against diet sodas, however, began in 2010, when the new perception became: Diet sodas can still cause weight gain, and the predominant sweetener--aspartame--is dangerous.
“Diets are way off … and the No. 1 thing we see from consumers is a complaint about aspartame,” said Al Carey, CEO of Americas Beverages for PepsiCo, said in February. “Aspartame is just one sweetener, but it’s the one that seems to get most of the negatives in the press and on YouTube. [If] you research it, that’s where the negatives are coming [from].”
"Diet cola drinkers in the U.S. told us they wanted aspartame-free Diet Pepsi and we're delivering," Seth Kaufman, senior vice president of Pepsi, said in a statement.
In tests, Kaufman said, consumers recognized the reformulated drink to be Diet Pepsi, but said that it might have a "slightly different mouthfeel," according to an Associated Press report.
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