PepsiCo is rolling out its mid-calorie cola Pepsi True at selected retailers in Denver, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. following a soft launch on Amazon to assess demand.
In-depth on carbonates with Euromonitor International
Carbonates will never return to the buzz of the 80s but beverage makers can inject life back into the category from side-stepping into the water aisle to bottling up retro-style or moving into new day parts, says Euromonitor International.
While mainstream food retailers discovered kombucha later than their counterparts in the ‘natural’ channel, they are playing catch-up now, says natural soda maker Reed’s, which entered the market in 2012 with its Culture Club kombucha range and now claims...
Zenith International includes cocktail flavors and cognitive enhancement within a list of 13 top trends it says have driven innovation in energy drinks on the basis of post-2012 product launches.
GOLDEN STATE ROW ESCALATES AS NOVEMBER 4 BALLOTS APPROACH
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has attacked November ballots in San Francisco and Berkeley that will ask city residents to approve increased taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and sweeteners used to sweeten such drinks.
Ingredion has struck a deal with Desert King International (DKI) to become the exclusive global distributor of DKI's natural foaming agents from Quillaja saponaria (the soapbark tree) and Yucca schidigera (the Mohave yucca plant) for use in food...
Bai Brands founder Ben Weiss says he believes carbonated soft drinks are ‘dying on the vine and need true variety’ as his firm aims to disrupt the category with sparkling line Bai Bubbles.
While Diet Pepsi sales remain pretty dire, strong growth from Mountain Dew Kickstart, Wild Cherry Pepsi and retro-style ‘real-sugar’ Pepsi prove that Americans haven’t lost their enthusiasm for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), says PepsiCo.
US version of Coca-Cola Life has 60 calories per 8-oz glass bottle
Stevia-and-sugar-sweetened Coca-Cola Life is making its US debut this week following successful launches in Latin America and the UK. But will it bring a surge of new - or lapsed - consumers to the cola category and help to reverse the flagging fortunes...
Taking a significant minority stake in Monster Beverage Corp rather than launching a full-scale takeover is a smart move on Coca-Cola’s part, boosting its participation in one of the beverage sector’s fastest-growing categories but providing a ‘hedge’...
400 representative products tested for 4-mei levels
UPDATED Aug 22: The FDA has conducted new tests to determine exposure to 4-mei (4-Methylimidazole) via consumption of products containing caramel colors III and IV, and plans more to assess exposure from other sources such as brewed coffee and roasted...
SEE INSIDE MONSTER ENERGY'S INNOVATION LOCKER: THE BEVERAGEDAILY.COM TOP 5
Monster Energy CEO Rodney Sacks insists new launch Ultra Sunrise will not go head-to-head PepsiCo's Mountain Dew Kickstart, despite its lighter 'Orangina-type flavor'.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) on Wednesday introduced a bill that would require a mandatory tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in a contentious move aimed at curbing the “dual” crises of obesity and diabetes.
Just a week after Mexico banned commercials for soda, snacks and confectionery products during cinema showings of children’s movies and during children’s TV programming, Mexican authorities say ads for Nestlé, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Hershey´s and Holanda products...
While beverage’s biggest guns have pumped some serious cash into developing ‘mid-calorie’ versions of their iconic brands (Dr Pepper TEN, Pepsi Next, Coca-Cola Life), not everyone is convinced they will deliver the incremental growth to the ailing soda...
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi says she didn’t want a short-term ‘cut, slash and burn’ policy that would have seen the company make enormous earnings from 2006 despite the upset her long-term nutritional foods focus caused some investors.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is calling on the Food and Drug Administration to require warning labels on energy drink containers notifying consumers of the risk of heart attack, convulsion, and other adverse reactions.
New York’s highest court has refused to reinstate New York City’s controversial limit on the sale of large sugary beverages, effectively killing the city’s final appeal.
Will Keurig Cold really turn the soft drinks market on its head? Can natural sweeteners pull diet soda out of its funk? And what’s the next coconut water?
Buoyed by a growing number of Americans abandoning carbonated soft drinks for bottled water and a spate of innovation in the category, the bottled water market as a whole is projected to increase from $13.1 billion in retail sales to $17 billion in 2018—with...
Dollar sales of diet soda plunged 9.5% in the four weeks to April 12, while sales of regular soda fared hardly any better (- 2.4%), as Americans sought out other options from energy drinks (+8.9%) to sparkling water (+24.5%), according to the latest Nielsen...
BUT BONNIE HERZOG SAYS PEPSICO COULD BE ON RECOVERY ROAD
US beverage analyst Bonnie Herzog says she is ‘increasingly concerned’ about The Coca-Cola Company’s ability to reach its 2020 vision due to a US soda slowdown and global instability.
There’s a reason why soda is generally sweet and comes in three flavors (cola, lemon & lime and root beer), because that’s what sells, right? Wrong, says DRY Soda founder and CEO Sharelle Klaus, whose best-selling flavors include lavender, rhubarb...
The creators of a semisweet cola believe that their healthier approach to indulgence is just the type of disruptive jolt the soda industry needs to get out of its so-called funk.
The energy drinks market has become more segmented in recent years, but relentlessly negative PR, a flurry of lawsuits and an FDA-probe have not dampened consumers’ enthusiasm for the original caffeine-fuelled formulas, says one beverage industry veteran.
Launching a new brand in the ultra-competitive US carbonated soft drinks market - which is facing well-documented problems right now - is notoriously tough, but the Dutch entrepreneur behind new market entrant Veri Soda is convinced he has found the sweet...
Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) will trial stevia sweetened versions of flag sodas Dr Pepper, 7-UP and Canada Dry in the US this year in a bold move one analyst says is a ‘litmus test’ for the future success of all-natural sodas.
It’s been a grim year in the carbonated soft drinks aisles for the sector's three biggest guns, but will things look up in 2014? And will new all-natural sweeteners reverse the downward trend in the diet soda sector?
As Coke and Pepsi watch their diet soda sales stagnate, the arrows on the sales growth chart on Zevia CEO Paddy Spence’s wall are going in the opposite direction, with growth of his zero-calorie sodas up in the triple digits.
PureCircle has received a GRAS (generally regarded as safe) letter from the US Food and Drug Administration for its high-purity Rebaudioside M sweetener (also known as Reb M or Reb X), clearing the way for PureCircle to use the sweetener in soft drinks...
From declining interest in soft drinks to the ongoing war on caffeine and the explosion of raw juices and functional beverages, 2013 has certainly been an eventful one for the beverage category. Count on another strong year for premium juices, coconut...
US analyst Bonnie Herzog predicts that diet soda sales declines could fuel a 15-20% drop in overall US carbonated soft drink sales by 2020 but believes Coke is best-positioned to ride out the storm.
While consumer concerns over artificial sweeteners have been blamed - in part - for the funk the diet soda market currently finds itself in (click here), the fact remains that they are safe and effective tools for weight management, according to one obesity...
Big Interview: Greg Steltenpohl, CEO of Califia Farms and founder of Odwalla
“The slowdown of soft drinks is not going to be catastrophic for the beverage industry,” said Greg Steltenphol, CEO of beverage manufacturer Califia Farms and founder of Odwalla, discussing the recent slump in carbonated soft drink sales—particularly...
San-Diego-based flavor innovator Senomyx says the first products arising from a collaboration with PepsiCo using a novel sweet taste modifier called S617 should hit shelves next year - contingent upon a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) determination.
The use of natural sweeteners, such as stevia, in carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) has become an increasingly “compelling attribute” for North American consumers, stevia-sweetened soda brand, Zevia, has claimed.
The recent drop in diet soda sales in North America has been “a little more rapid than we expected” says PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, but PepsiCo remains convinced that “significant disruptive innovation” rather than “ridiculous pricing” is the best way to...
If current trends continue, carbonated soft drinks volumes could decline 15-20% by 2020 driven by sharp declines in diet variants, predicts Wells Fargo. But why have Americans fallen out of love with diet soda, and what are they drinking instead?
Dollar sales of low/zero calorie carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) plunged 8.6% in the four weeks to Sept 28, according to the latest Nielsen xAOC* data, which shows the diet soda market remains stuck in a rut.
Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) CEO Larry Young says the firm is very concerned by US sales declines in diet sodas and the company’s below average performance in that category.
A top financial analyst is skeptical about the long-term viability of PepsiCo’s new ‘hybrid everyday value’ US pricing structure given Coke’s apparent bid to ‘aggressively out-promote’ the strategy.
Big interview: Kevin Klock, CEO Talking Rain (Sparkling ICE)
Want to know what success looks like? Check out Sparkling ICE. In early 2010 it was generating $10m a year. This year, it’s on course to generate $350-400m and CEO Kevin Klock tells FoodNavigator-USA it could be a $1bn brand by 2018.
Consuming ‘illicit drugs’ such as crack cocaine and methamphetamines gives rise to similar kinds of dental damage than that caused by heavy soda consumption, a new US Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) study claims.
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi believes a ‘maniacal focus’ on cola's woes is unhelpful within the US beverage market, and despite the firm’s heavy investment in Rebaudioside D-based sweetener innovation, claims Stevia ‘does not work well in colas’.
Mid-calorie carbonated soft drink manufacturers must deal with the aftertaste issues associated with stevia, as the natural sweetener becomes more widely accepted by consumers, according to Datamonitor consumer analyst, Melanie Felgate.
