Dive Brief:
- Bonnie Herzog, a senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, says she believes Coca-Cola is in the best position to ride out the current slump in diet soda sales due to its brand dominance in Europe and overall share of key markets held by Diet Coke.
- According to Herzog, negative press around the artificial sweetener aspartame that spread on platforms like Twitter is a large part of the diet soda sales slump, but recent European Food Safety Authority findings could counter that.
- Herzog says the decline is among the most important issues facing beverage manufacturers in the short-term and predicts it could ultimately create a 15-20% decline in U.S. carbonated drink sales by 2020.
Dive Insight:
Reports tying aspartame to health issues like cancer certainly didn't help diet soda's image, and they came as U.S. consumers became more interested in healthier options in general. The new EFSA report could allow giants like Coke and Pepsi to breathe a sigh of relief, as it was reportedly "one of the most comprehensive risk assessments" of the ingredient ever conducted and found that the current acceptable intake level of 40mg/kg of body weight is safe. Social media would be a good place for beverage manufacturers to start when it comes to combating aspartame stigma, as a Wells Fargo analysis of tweets with the hashtag #Aspartame found almost 200 the day EFSA made its announcement.