PepsiCo’s top executive indicated on July 17 that the company may switch Pepsi’s sweetener from high-fructose corn syrup to sugar, one day after President Donald Trump said Coca-Cola would soon be making the change.
“Same journey that we have in foods, we’re following in beverages. This is a consumer-centric strategy. We’re following the consumer,” Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo’s CEO, told investors on a call after being asked about Trump’s announcement.
“If the consumer is telling us that they prefer products that have sugar and they prefer products that have natural ingredients, we will give the consumer products that have sugar and have natural ingredients. So, this is a journey of following the consumer, trying to be a little bit maybe one step ahead of the consumer, but not too many steps. And it applies to both beverages and food.”
As Jasper Fakkert reports for The Epoch Times, Trump said on Wednesday that he had been discussing with Coca-Cola the possibility of switching Coke’s sweetener to cane sugar in the United States, “and they have agreed to do so,” he said.
A Coca-Cola spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the company appreciates Trump’s enthusiasm for its brand and promised to soon share “more details on new innovative offerings within our Coca‑Cola product range.”
Some Coca-Cola products feature cane sugar, although most Coke sold in the United States is made with corn syrup. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo updated their soda formulas in the 1980s to use corn syrup instead of sugar.
Laguarta’s announcement came during a call in which executives said that PepsiCo will relaunch its Lay’s and Tostitos brands later this year to highlight that they contain no artificial colors or flavors.
“We’re trying to elevate the real food perception of Lay’s. If you think about the simplest and most natural snack, it is a potato chip; it’s a potato, it’s oil, and it’s a little bit of salt—the most simple, no artificial ingredients,” Laguarta said.
The company also said it was expanding the use of avocado and olive oil across its brands, rather than the canola or soybean oil it uses. Some health influencers, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have promoted removing seed oils from food.
PepsiCo officials had announced in April that they were quickening the company’s transition to natural colors, in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration’s banning of two artificial dyes. Lays and Tostitos will not contain artificial colors by the end of 2025, he said at the time.
PepsiCo already offers Lays and Doritos without artificial colors or flavors under its Simply segment.
“The Simply line extension for existing chip brands is still in early innings,“ F/m Investments senior portfolio manager Christian Greiner said. ”Consumers have not engaged so far, and given that, it will be seen how consumers react to a rebranding of Lays and Tostitos over the next couple of quarters.”
