Dive Brief:
- Kraft is retooling its original Capri Sun recipe to include sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener, and its Roarin' Waters varieties, which are touted as low-calorie drinks, will now contain stevia extract in place of sucralose.
- According to the company, "consumers were asking for it," indicative of the current movement toward healthier beverages made with natural sweeteners.
- Reuters quoted Jennifer Harris, the director of marketing initiatives at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, who called the move "a response to public perceptions that sugar might be better than high-fructose corn syrup and stevia might be better than sucralose." However, she also said that "the scientific evidence hasn't shown that to be the case."
Dive Insight:
Kraft isn't the first company to get rid of high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners in a product, and it won't be the last. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo released stevia-sweetened versions of their original recipes (Coca-Cola Life, Pepsi True) over the past couple years, and Coca-Cola also made its Canadian Coke recipe less sweet as of earlier this year. Soda sales are sagging, so these two beverage industry bigwigs are trying to come up with fresh ideas to appeal to the more health-conscious consumers who are leaving soft drinks behind for more nutritious alternatives.