Aspartame Diet Pepsi May Not Be Going Away for Good

Although Pepsi announced that its popular Diet Pepsi will soon change its composition, replacing the aspartame artificial sweetener with another one called sucralose, also known as Splenda, fans of the old diet drink may still be able to purchase it, but only from online stores.

Earlier this year, PepsiCo announced that it will change the formula of its Diet Pepsi, taking out the aspartame sweetener and replacing it with sucralose, another artificial sweetener. The company made the decision of after customer feedback. According to official reports, the new Diet Pepsi will hit the stores later this summer.

However, during an official call where they discussed the company’s earnings, Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, made a surprising statement, saying that for fans of the aspartame Diet Pepsi, the company will figure out a way to still make it available, most likely online. So far, no PepsiCo representatives have made any comments on Nooyi’s statement.

No one really knows if there are customers out there who still want the old aspartame Diet Pepsi, but that will soon be figured out.

According to the vice president of Pepsi, Seth Kaufman, the new diet drink will have a slightly different “mouth feel”, but the Diet Pepsi taste will be recognizable by everyone. Recent reports conducted by Beverage Digest, the industry tracker, Diet Pepsi was number seven on the list of the most popular soda drinks in the United States last year. According to the same report, Diet Coke was number three on the list, while regular Coke was number two and regular Pepsi was the most popular soda drink as chosen by Americans.

Reports say that both Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have declined in sales lately, and company executives say the reason for this is that more people are concerned about the safety of the artificial sweetener aspartame. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. said that it doesn’t plan on replacing the artificial sweetener from its Diet Coke with another one anytime soon.

John Sicher, who works as a publisher for Beverage Digest, stated that PepsiCo is doing the right thing by replacing aspartame with sucralose as the main sweetener in its sugar-free Pepsi. Sicher calls Pepsi’s decision “a smart move.” He said that Pepsi can tell its consumers that if they really want the old Diet Pepsi, they still have it.

PepsiCo announced on Thursday that its earnings went up this year.
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