The Coca-Cola company has defended its use of corn syrup after Donald Trump’s claim Wednesday that he had apparently convinced the brand to switch to using sugar cane in its US drinks, as it does in Mexico and the UK.
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola,” Trump said in a social media post late Tuesday.
“This will be a very good move by them – You’ll see. It’s just better!”
Initially, the drinks giant responded with a neutral statement of appreciation for “President Trump’s enthusiasm” for Coke, and a vague message about “new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range” to come.
On Thursday, however, the soft drinks company released an additional statement making positive claims about high-fructose corn syrup, a product that some blame for soaring US obesity rates and which has become a target of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s “Make America healthy again” movement.
“The name sounds complex, but high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – which we use to sweeten some of our beverages – is actually just a sweetener made from corn,” Coca-Cola said in a statement. “It’s safe; it has about the same number of calories per serving as table sugar and is metabolized in a similar way by your body.”
It added that the American Medical Association “has confirmed that HFCS is no more likely to contribute to obesity than table sugar or other full-calorie sweeteners”, and said: “Please be assured that Coca-Cola brand soft drinks do not contain any harmful substances.”
In 2023, the AMA released a statement saying it recognized “that at the present time, insufficient evidence exists to specifically restrict use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or other fructose-containing sweeteners in the food supply or to require the use of warning labels on products containing HFCS”.
Trump’s rather abrupt entry into the Coca-Cola sugar debate comes as he struggles to move past a growing controversy over the release of files relating to the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a one-time friend of Trump’s.
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The president’s high consumption of Diet Coke is well-documented, including the installation of a red “Diet Coke button” near his desk that he can press in order to summon a staff member with the drink.
Diet Coke contains neither corn syrup nor sugar cane, but aspartame, a low-calorie artificial sweetener.
A switch by Coca-Cola to using sugar cane could trade implications for the $285bn US soft drinks market. Coca-Cola in Mexico is made with cane sugar and packaged in glass bottles. Some is imported into the US, where it sells unofficially as “Mexican Coke” at a premium over its domestic counterpart.
In the 1980s Coca-Cola’s US arm changed its formulation to use high-fructose corn syrup, supported by US farming subsidies, and not imported sugar cane subjected to import tariffs. But turning back the clock could prove costly if Trump’s high US tariffs on nations that produce sugar cane continue to apply.
Trump had previously clashed with the company over voting access in Georgia, where the company is based. But ahead of his second inauguration as president in January of this year, the company’s CEO, James Quincey, presented Trump with an inaugural Diet Coke bottle.
