Coca-Cola has announced that it will be introducing a cane sugar version of its leading soda product to the U.S. market this fall, confirming President Donald Trump’s pre-emptive announcement made days earlier.
The new offering of Coca-Cola will be available in the U.S. alongside the iconic version, which uses high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener and will remain unchanged. (Diet and Coke Zero products use aspartame and other artificial sweeteners.)
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The soda company said that the upcoming availability of the cane sugar product is part of its “ongoing innovation agenda.”
“This addition is designed to complement the company’s strong core portfolio and offer more choices across occasions and preferences,” Coca-Cola said on Tuesday in its second quarterly update of the year.
The company’s chairman and CEO James Quincey elaborated further on a conference call with investors, during which he referenced Trump’s recent comments and praised his interest in the matter. “We appreciate the President’s enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand,” he said. “We are definitely looking to use the whole tool kit of available sweetening options.”
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Trump, who reportedly has a button at his desk in the Oval Office to request Diet Coke, had pre-emptively announced the ingredient change on July 16.
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL cane sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. This will be a very good move by them. You’ll see. It’s just better,” he said on Truth Social.
Coca-Cola produced in Mexico contains cane sugar. It’s sold in the U.S. and is widely referred to as “Mexican Coke” and is known for its long-neck glass bottle presentation. Cane sugar is also used in Coca-Cola produced in other countries across the rest of the world.
The U.S. began importing the Mexican version of the beverage in 2005, and it is preferred by some in the U.S. over the domestic product.
Corn syrup has been used in the production of Coca-Cola in the U.S. since 1984, when the soda company announced a switch from traditional sugar cane and sugar beet. Analysts suggested that the change was due to the lower costs of the corn alternative, and the decline of the sugar market as artificial sweeteners become increasingly popular.
Whilst corn syrup has traditionally been produced more than other sweeteners in the United States, cane and beet sugar has become more readily available for U.S. consumers over the last decade.
The United States Department of Agriculture has not published exact recent figures on corn syrup production, but it said in 2016 that domestic production had fallen almost 20% in the previous decade.
There continues to be a debate over the use of cane sugar vs. corn syrup in Coca-Cola and whether one is healthier than the other.
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Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April said that “sugar is poison.” Amid his campaign to “Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy has referred to high-fructose corn syrup as “a formula for making you obese and diabetic.”
Over the weekend, Kennedy celebrated the Steak ’n Shake restaurant chain after it announced it would start offering Coca-Cola with real cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. “MAHA is winning,” Kennedy said of the news.
However, some nutritionists are not convinced the switch will make too much difference, if any at all.
“For all practical purposes, they’re the same. I find the switch to be nutritionally hilarious,” nutritionist and professor of food studies at New York University Marion Nestle told Associated Press last week. “They taste the same. They have the same number of calories. They do exactly the same things in the body. Everybody would be healthier eating less of both of them.”