Topline
Coca-Cola, one of the country’s largest companies, has said it will launch a new version of its signature product sweetened with cane sugar rather than corn syrup, after President Donald Trump pushed for the change amid a war on artificial ingredients and dyes waged by his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Bottles of Coca Cola are displayed on April 24, 2023 in San Anselmo, California.
Key Facts
Coca-Cola said in its earnings release on Tuesday morning it will launch a version of the drink with cane sugar—as is already used in its products in Mexico and some European countries—later this fall.
Coke said the additional production “is designed to complement the company’s strong core portfolio and offer more choices across occasions and preferences.”
Trump last week posted to Truth Social that he’d been speaking to the company about using “REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States” and said they’d agreed to do so, though the company held off on confirming the move.
The decision to launch an additional product, rather than replace the corn syrup primarily used to sweeten American cokes, clears up confusion about what would have been a major shift set to significantly impact American agriculture.
The Corn Refiners Association told Reuters that, were high fructose corn syrup to be eliminated from the U.S. food and beverage supply, thousands of jobs would be lost and corn prices would be cut at a loss of about $5.1 billion in farm revenue.
It was also estimated that to fully replace corn syrup with cane sugar would have increased the price of coke by as much as 10% due to the cost of the ingredient, needed changes to production facilities and other changes.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Big Number
7.3 million. That’s how many tons of corn syrup the U.S. produces each year, Reuters reported, compared to about 3.6 million metric tons of cane sugar. Around 400 million bushels of corn—2.5% of all U.S. corn—are used per year to make the corn syrup needed for food and drink products.
Key Background
RFK Jr. has vowed to “Make America Healthy Again” and focused much of his efforts on ingredients used in food and beverages. Kennedy vowed to ban high-fructose corn syrup and seed oils, and has called the former a major driver of obesity and diabetes. He has decried the ingredient as “poison,” but experts told the Washington Post that studies don’t show using cane sugar has a significant impact on health. A 2022 study found there was little difference in how the two products impact weight, blood pressure or body mass index, and that added sugars of any kind pose similar health risks to one another. Coca-Cola has said high-fructose corn syrup is“safe” and has “about the same number of calories per serving as table sugar.”
Crucial Quote
“Replacing one sugar with another isn’t going to have much of an effect on health,” Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, told the Post.
Forbes Valuation
Coca-Cola is ranked as the country’s 104th largest public company in the world on the 2025 Forbes’ Global 2000 list. Founded in 1886, the company now has a market value of over $300 billion and employs roughly 70,000 people.
Further Reading
ForbesCoca-Cola And Corn Refiners Respond To Trump’s ‘Real Cane Sugar’ In Coke CommentBy Siladitya RayForbesRFK Jr.’s Planned Campaign On Ultra-Processed Foods To Face ChallengesBy Joshua P. Cohen
ForbesIs RFK, Jr. Right to Go After the Food Industry, and Will It Work?By Web GolinkinForbesFDA Bans Use Of Red Dye No. 3 In Foods—What To Know About The ChemicalBy Mary Whitfill Roeloffs
