New Diet Pepsi Without Aspartame On Sale Today
10 Aug 2015 --- PepsiCo’s new Diet Pepsi formula without aspartame will hit the shelves in the US today, the first time the drink has been sold without the artificial sweetener.
However, sales of both Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke have declined sharply in recent years, due to consumer fears over aspartame, say industry experts. PepsiCo has replaced aspartame with sucralose and acesulfame potassium, also artificial sweeteners, but with less controversy surrounding them.
The change will come with a big marketing campaign alerting consumers to the new formula and the on-pack information will be dominant. The company hopes to reverse the decline of Diet Pepsi, which suffered a 5.2% drop in sales in 2014.
The reformulation of Diet Pepsi has taken the company two years, as it struggled to make a beverage with the same taste and mouthfeel as that with aspartame. The company believes that the taste remains unchanged with this new formula.
Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi’s main rival on the beverage stand has also suffered huge sales declines, but the company says that there are no plans to remove aspartame from its formulation at the moment.
