Dive Brief:
- PureCircle says it has received a GRAS (generally regarded as safe) letter from the FDA for its Reb-X sweetener. Such a " no objection" letter clears the way for PureCircle to use the stevia formulation in soft drinks and food.
- The letter comes as welcome news to Coca-Cola. The soft-drink giant partnered with PureCircle five years ago to develop Reb-X.
- If Reb-X does what it promises—offer a sweet taste in drinks without that lingering aftertaste common in stevia formulations—it could help stop the continuing plummet in sales of diet sodas.
Dive Insight:
Few thing have flustered drink manufacturers as much as the search for a sugar substitute that actually tastes like sugar. In fact, we've watched in amazement over the years as people who consume a lot of processed and/or "diet" foods and drinks came to forget what sugar actually tastes like. It's common now for overweight and unhealthy people to drink things with high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame or god-only-knows-what-else and insist that it tastes just fine. That's the power of marketing, conditioning and wishful thinking.
Given that, we have to wonder if Reb-X could actually save the diet-soda industry. Our sense is that people (especially young people) are abandoning diet drinks because they see them as unhealthy, unnatural, ineffective as a weigh-loss tool and sort of gross. We doubt anyone could find a single Millennial anywhere in America who would actually turn away from teas and water and start guzzling diet soda if only it just tasted more like soft drinks did back in the 1950s.