Dive Brief:
- Coca-Cola Co. is rolling out a new no-calorie, no-sugar variety of its Glacéau vitamin water, Glacéau Multi-V Zero, which has a light lemonade flavor and is meant to offer consumers another functional beverage option.
- Mountain Dew, owned by PepsiCo Inc., is taking a different approach by re-releasing its popular flavor Baja Blast, which was once exclusively available at Taco Bell but will now be available for purchase at stores beginning April 20.
- Mountain Dew is also releasing its citrus-flavored Sangrita Blast in bottles and cans for a limited time — a drink that was also formerly exclusively available at Taco Bell.
Dive Insight:
Diet soda is also making recent headlines as well. Advocacy group U.S. Right to Know, which aims to find out what is in the foods consumers eat and how it affects their health, has requested help from the FTC and FDA to investigate Coca-Cola and PepsiCo for possible false advertising about their diet soda products.
The group argues that artificial sweeteners have been linked to weight gain, so the diet soda products that use these artificial sweeteners cannot be advertised as weight loss products. This would mean using "diet" in the name could be considered false advertising.
The group also wants all other companies investigated as well that use artificial sweeteners with potential false advertising of these products as "diet" or weight loss aids.