Dive Brief:
- The FTC has decided that diet soda can keep the word "diet" on its label following a challenge from consumer rights group U.S. Right to Know. The FDA is still reviewing the request.
- U.S. Right to Know called the "diet" label "deceptive, false and misleading," while citing studies that showed artificial sweeteners might actually make people gain weight rather than lose it, as the word "diet" might imply.
- However, other studies have suggested the opposite, which diet soda makers like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have called on in their defense.
Dive Insight:
"I do believe that 'diet' soda will go down in U.S. history as one of the greatest consumer frauds ever," Gary Ruskin, co-director of U.S. Right to Know, told CNN Money.
The FTC's decision will appease diet soda makers. Dies soda has been an ailing beverage segment for the past several years. Last year, Pepsi-Cola dethroned Diet Coke as the No. 2 U.S. soda, and Diet Coke saw its volumes drop 7% in the second quarter and 6% in the first quarter.
Diet Pepsi has been struggling since changing its recipe to replace aspartame with sucralose.