ATLANTA -- Fans of "Mexican Coke" in the United States need not worry about sweetener changes, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Americans who buy the glass bottles of Coke exported from Mexico may have been dismayed by recent online reports that a Mexican independent bottler planned to switch from sugar to fructose to cut costs. Unlike the exported bottles of "Mexicoke," Coke drinks made in the United States are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup.
Arca Continental, the Mexican bottler, stressed in a statement that it has no plans to change the sweetener for the "Coca-Cola Nostalgia" bottles that it exports to the United States. Those will continue to use 100% cane sugar, it said. The company's CEO said last week that the bottler could consider using more fructose, but that was only for drinks distributed in Mexico.
The company's drinks sold in Mexico are already sweetened with a mix of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.
In the United States, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. and Purchase, N.Y-based PepsiCo Inc. switched to the corn syrup, which is cheaper, in the 1980s, said the report.
In Mexico, which has one of the world's highest soda consumption rates, legislators last week approved an eight-cents-per-liter tax on soft drinks.
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