PepsiCo to Replace Aspartame with Sucralose in US Diet Pepsi

27 Apr 2015 --- PepsiCo will debut Diet Pepsi free of the aspartame in the US later this year, the company has confirmed. Instead of aspartame, Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi will be sweetened with a blend of artificial sweeteners sucralose and acesulfame potassium.

The new drinks will hit shelves in August, with cans stating that the drink is "Now Aspartame Free." The change only applies to the U.S. market and will affect all varieties of Diet Pepsi, such as Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi. It will not apply to other PepsiCo drinks, such as Diet Mountain Dew.

Making an “aspartame free” claim is a growing trend, with Innova Market Insights tracking almost 500 products with this claim globally in 2014, a significant rise from 2013 (340), but a four-fold increase from 2011 (120).  

"Diet cola drinkers in the U.S. told us they wanted aspartame-free Diet Pepsi and we're delivering," said Seth Kaufman, senior vice president of Pepsi and Flavors Portfolio, PepsiCo North America Beverages, said in a statement. "We recognize that consumer demand is evolving and we're confident that cola-lovers will enjoy the crisp, refreshing taste of this new product."

Diet Pepsi held 4.3 percent of the total carbonated soft drink market in 2014, though its volume shrank 5.2 percent from the year before as customers have pared their consumption of diet heavyweights like Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi and Diet Mountain Dew.

The decision to swap sweeteners comes as Americans keep turning away from popular diet sodas. Rival Coca-Cola said this week that sales volume for Diet Coke, which also uses aspartame, fell 5 percent in North America in the first three months of the year.

Coca-Cola said that it has no plans to change the sweetener in Diet Coke, which is the country's top-selling diet cola. The Food and Drug Administration says aspartame, known by the brand names Equal and NutraSweet, is "one of the most exhaustively studied substances in the human food supply, with more than 100 studies supporting its safety."

More recently, a government advisory committee for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's dietary guidelines said aspartame appears to be safe in the amounts consumed by Americans. Executives at Coke and Pepsi blame the sales declines on perceptions that the sweetener isn't safe.