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Diet Pepsi is getting rid of one of its cornerstone ingredients in a desperate attempt to sell more soda
(Darron Cummings/AP) A customer selects a Diet Pepsi from a cooler at Handi Foods in Walesboro, Ind., Monday, Dec. 20, 2004. These days the carbonated drink battleground is diet vs. regular, and it's looking increasingly as though the lightweight could flatten its full-calorie cousin.
Diet Pepsi is removing aspartame from its recipe.
"The company will begin to replace aspartame with a blend of sucralose and acesulfame potassium in Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi sold in the US in August," reports Duane Stanford at Bloomberg.
Diet Pepsi's sales fell 5.2% last year.
The company hopes that getting rid of aspartame will boost sales. Americans are increasingly seeking out teas and energy drinks over soda.
Consumers have become increasingly wary of aspartame, an artificial, man-made sweetener that has been plagued by rumors that it causes cancer.
Aspartame is often sold under the brand names NutraSweet® and Equal®.
PepsiCo has introduced a beverage sweetened with natural sweetener Stevia called Pepsi True.
The company says the new product "will continue to provide consumers with the crisp, refreshing zero-calorie cola taste they expect from Pepsi."
Aspartame is generally known for having an artificial taste, while sucralose, which is widely known as Splenda, is supposed to taste more like real sugar.
Some fans of Diet Pepsi expressed panic that the recipe will change.
Guys, CNN is reporting that Diet Pepsi's formula will be changed and I can't accept this.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 24, 2015
Many in the industry expect that brands like Coke and Pepsi will continue moving away from traditional soda as Americans grow to prefer other beverages.
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