What’s the real reason behind Coke’s Sweetener Challenge?
It’s the biggest cola marketing campaign since “The Pepsi Challenge.”
The Coca-Cola Company is running a contest to find a new sugar-free, non-caloric sweetener — and it’s giving away a cool million to the winner.
But that begs the question: Why?
While only true Coke insiders know what the real story is behind its “Sweetener Challenge,” never underestimate the power of the art of distraction.
Mum’s the word
If there ever was something worth its weight in gold, it could be described exactly as Coke did in the rules for its Sweetener Challenge contest.
The company says it’s looking for a natural and safe “molecule or compound” that will “perform as well” as sugar in beverages… taste just as good as sugar… and contain only a smidgen of the calories.
Or, even better, none at all!
Plus that, the company doesn’t want any entries about new ways to use stevia.
Certainly, if you have the chemical smarts to come up with such a thing, whatever you do, don’t give it away to Coke for a mere million!
But let’s assume for a moment that Coke doesn’t really expect that any Average Joe will come up with such an amazing invention — and then turn it over to the company for a small pittance of its value.
So… what else might be going on here?
Could this mega-beverage maker be attempting to distract us while quietly making plans to introduce a new mystery sweetener, one that’s top secret to everyone except the biotech company that makes it?
That won’t sound so far-fetched when I tell you about a California company called Senomyx, which develops drug-like additives that mimic sweet, salty, and savory tastes.
Like something out of a sci-fi movie, this company has managed to clone human taste receptors, examining “millions of molecules” to locate ones to bind to just the right location on your tongue, stimulating a sweet taste that goes straight to your brain.
The additives that Senomyx makes don’t really taste like anything at all — but they manage to trick your brain into thinking you’ve tasted something. Which makes them more like a drug than a benign substance added to food.
Now, one of the company’s prize inventions, worth an untold amount of money, is coming straight out of its “natural high-intensity, zero-calorie sweetener discovery program.”
And that’s probably the most we’ll ever learn about it. Because exactly what it’s made from, and how “natural” and safe it really is, we’ll never know. Neither, for that matter, will the FDA.
Due to an absurd FDA loophole, Senomyx will be able to decide the safety of this mystery sweetener all on its own. And if the company doesn’t want to disclose anything to the FDA, well, it doesn’t have to.
And it doesn’t have to list this sweetening agent on ingredient labels. It could be called a “natural flavor,” an “artificial flavor,” or nothing at all!
Currently the company is moving full steam ahead to get what it’s dubbed “Sweetmyx FS22” ready to launch. Where it will land is anyone’s guess.
The only real way to avoid it is to be very suspicious of low-calorie, sweet-tasting beverages that don’t appear to contain much of anything sweet in them — be it sugar, HFCS, honey, stevia, or some artificial sweetener.
And if you happen to hear about a new, no-calorie drink from Coke that came out of its Sweetener Challenge, you might want to think twice about drinking that one as well!
“Coca-Cola offers a sweet quest: A million bucks to replace sugar” Allison Aubrey, September 4, 2017, NPR, npr.org
