Coca-Cola confirmed that it will release a new Coke made with cane sugar. The announcement follows a social media post from President Donald Trump last week in which he claimed he persuaded the company to replace high-fructose corn syrup.
The company revealed in its earnings report Tuesday that as “part of its ongoing innovation agenda,” it will launch in the fall an “offering made with US cane sugar” as part of its product range. Some versions of Coke already use cane sugar, including Coca-Cola sold in Mexico.
“This addition is designed to complement the company’s strong core portfolio and offer more choices across occasions and preferences,” Coca-Cola said in a statement.
CEO James Quincey said on a call with analysts that he thinks the drink “will be an enduring option for consumers” and noted that Coca-Cola uses cane sugar in several other of its beverages sold in the US, including lemonade and coffee.
Cane sugar is “blended into some of our other products, and so we are definitely looking to use the whole toolkit of available sweetening options where there are consumer preferences,” he said.
Last week, Trump said that Coca-Cola had “agreed” to use cane sugar in its colas. But Tuesday’s announcement reveals that Coke’s flagship recipe isn’t changing and will continue to use high-fructose corn syrup. Instead, the company will create a separate Coke product that includes cane sugar.
American-made Coca-Cola is made with high-fructose corn syrup, an ingredient that Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has aggressively advocated against.
Kennedy, who has led the charge to remove many artificial and highly processed ingredients from American foods, has called high-fructose corn syrup a “formula for making you obese and diabetic” in a September episode of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s podcast. Corn syrup is a common and cheap sweetener, which is why Coca-Cola made the switch many years ago. But sugar-filled soda isn’t heathy, health experts say — whether it is made with cane sugar or corn syrup.
“Excess consumption of sugar from any source harms health,” Eva Greenthal, senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, previously told CNN. “To make the US food supply healthier, the Trump administration should focus on less sugar, not different sugar.”
Meanwhile, rival PepsiCo isn’t making any major changes. However, its newly announced prebiotic soda contains cane sugar as does its recently acquired Poppi brand.
“Sugar is more expensive in the US than in many parts of the world, so I think there is a conversation with the government probably on how do we make sugar more affordable in the US, how do we have a farming strategy probably that reduces the cost of sugar and that will facilitate a lot of the transition for us and for the whole industry,” PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said on CNBC last week.
CNN’s Kristen Rogers contributed to this report.
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