New sweeteners hit soft drinks

MMR, Jan 12, 2009

NEW YORK -- Coca-Cola Co. has introduced Sprite Green, a reduced-calorie soft drink that contains a natural sweetener called Truvia that is based on rebiana, a substance found in the herb trevia. The sweetener was developed jointly by Coca-Cola and Cargill Inc.

The initial launch is focusing on locations and events oriented to teenagers and young adults, with a broader rollout planned for early 2009. Coca-Cola plans to use Truvia in several other products in the future.

PepsiCo Inc. has its own version of the sweetener, which was developed in collaboration with Whole Earth Sweetener Co. and is called PureVia. The first products to contain the sweetener will be three flavors of zero-calorie SoBe Life-water and an orange-juice drink called Trop50 that has half the calories and sugar of orange juice.

Both companies were waiting for approval from the Food and Drug Administration, although there was industry speculation that Coca-Cola would launch Sprite Green without the FDA's blessing. In fact, though, the FDA issued a letter of no objection--the equivalent of a green light--to Cargill, which had begun marketing a tabletop version of Truvia last July. Whole Earth also sells a tabletop version of PureVia.

FDA approval was an issue because studies conducted in the early 1990s suggested that there were possible adverse health effects from the use of stevia-based products, although the herb is approved for use in 12 countries and as a dietary supplement in the United States. As recently as August 2007, the FDA had cited concerns about stevia's effects on control of blood sugar and on the reproductive, cardiovascular and renal systems in a letter to another manufacturer.

Cargill, Whole Earth, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo all maintain that their sweeteners are more highly purified than the versions used in the early 1990s. Cargill points out that it spent six years developing Truvia.

Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are pinning their hopes on a new, good-tasting sweetener to revive declining sales of carbonated soft drinks.