Coca-Cola Set to Launch Diet Drink with Stevia

Citing people familiar with the company's plans, the WSJ report stated that Coca-Cola intends to market three flavors of a juice drink in its Odwalla line that contain a sweetener derived from the herb stevia.

15/12/08 Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola Co. is expected to launch a drink with natural, calorie-free sweetener in the U.S. this week, intensifying its competition with PepsiCo Inc. to dominate a new generation of noncarbonated beverages, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Citing people familiar with the company's plans, the report stated that Coca-Cola intends to market three flavors of a juice drink in its Odwalla line that contain a sweetener derived from the herb stevia. However, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, is yet to issue an official notice of 'go-ahead' for the drink's ingredient.

The report also said that Coca-Cola's rival Pepsi has several drinks ready to go in the U.S. market with the sweetener and the company is waiting for the FDA to clear the ingredient.

Although, the FDA's "no objection" letter is not required under the voluntary notification program through which the sweetener is being evaluated, an official notice would help the companies to assure its consumers and retailers and avoid the embarrassment of pulling a product off the market if the FDA objects.

Stevia is approved for use in at least 12 countries and as a dietary supplement in the U.S. In the early 1990s, the FDA concluded that stevia cannot be used as a food additive after some studies suggested adverse health effects from stevia-based products, such as potential mutations in the livers of rats.

According to Coca-Cola and Pepsi, their sweetener is more highly purified than the versions of stevia used in previous tests, and the new data have been submitted to the FDA. The FDA does not have a specific date for the completion of the review.

Meanwhile, Cargill Inc., which teamed up with Coca-Cola and spent six years in developing the sweetener, has reportedly begun selling a tabletop version of the sweetener in the U.S. in July and is launching an ad campaign Monday to build sales. Cargill defended the FDA's notification process as transparent. "We're confident in the safety of the ingredient. If the agency had questions or concerns, we would know," the report quoted Amy Boileau, Cargill's manager of regulatory and scientific affairs, as saying.