One year to find the magic formula to replace sugar. Launching the curious competition, the winner of which will receive a million dollars, is Coca-Cola, which has been grappling with the sugar dilemma for some time: reducing or even better eliminating the presence of sweeteners in the world's most famous carbonated drink is now a mission of absolute priority. For two main reasons: the health trend, now rampant throughout the world (including the US), and then legislative measures such as the Sugar Tax or the Soda Tax, implemented as a last resort against the alarming phenomenon of obesity by some countries.
The attempts made so far have not been satisfactory: Life, Zero, also with lemon, Light and Coca Cola without caffeine have arrived, in no particular order. The first was even a real flop, and probably won't be produced any more soon. Things are going a little better with the Zero, relaunched before the summer with the revised version called Zero Zuccheri, to put the emphasis on public danger number one, sugar.
But that seems to be not enough. In fact, after the summer launch, the responses from the public on the web were not enthusiastic. The problem doesn't seem to be the name, it's not enough to point out the lack of calories first and then of sugars. What matters, in the end, is always and only the taste and obviously replacing sugar with sweeteners like Aspartame and Acesulfame K did not solve the problem, as well as not having convinced even in terms of health.
Indeed, in recent years sales of sugary drinks are steadily declining even in the UScertainly not a frontline country in terms of consumer health protection. In a lawsuit filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer advocacy group, Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association group allegedly “misled consumers about the health risks resulting from the consumption of sugary drinks such as carbonated drinks”.
The Atlanta-based company, which this year celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of the opening of the Italian office, has therefore decided to give it another try: the solution is to find alternatives to sugar that are healthy and do not compromise the taste of the drink. This is why Coca-Cola has launched the ideas contest with a final prize of one million dollars, open to anyone with the right intuition. Published on the Herox platform, the Sweetner Challenge competition includes proposals until January 18, 2018 and is open to everyone, small chemists and ordinary people. The winner will be announced on October 3, 2018.
