14 DAY TRIAL // Wall Street Journal recently revealed the intentions of the Coca-Cola Company to put three new innovative drink flavors on the US market, to complete its Odwalla beverage line. What makes them so special is the fact that they would contain a natural sweetener, a version of the already existing substance called rebiana, made of Paraguayan Stevia plants. The natural extract would provide, in terms of taste, the same qualities as the existing soft drinks, but with no sugar, and consequently with zero calories.
The same source also mentions that the giant company is planning to improve its vitaminwater and smartwater with the same sugar-free sweetener, despite the fact that Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved the project yet.
Still, all the major companies producing soft drinks, like PepsiCo Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple, have been showing lots of interest in developing innovative formulas for their products, as the consumer's demand for healthier, non-carbonated beverages is constantly increasing.
Even if the project is presented in the brightest colors possible, there are specialists who doubt that the natural sweetener is to be found very soon in the bottles of Coke. As William Pecoriello tells Wall Street Journal, “Taste is key and we believe rebiana still has too strong a flavor to be used across soft drink categories and brands without affecting how they taste.”
The initial project featured two major companies in the food industry, Coke and Cargill, whose plans were to bring rebiana sweetener primarily on the markets where the law already accepted the use of Stevia extracts for therapeutic purposes, including the EU countries. Nevertheless, it seems to be quite impossible to put it on the American market as soon as next week, as it has been stated.