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posted by martyb on Friday September 08 2017, @10:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the How-sweet-it-is! dept.

Coca-Cola is using the HeroX crowd-sourcing platform to hold a $1 million competition for a new sugar substitute:

"Sugar is now the number one item that consumers want to avoid in their diets," says Darren Seifer, a food and beverage industry analyst with the NPD Group. The message to consume less is coming from health experts around the globe.

It's a challenge for the beverage industry, as is the fact that many consumers don't like the idea of artificial sweeteners found in diet drinks. So, the search for new, alternative sweeteners that can appeal to consumers' changing tastes is in full swing. And Coca-Cola has turned to crowd-sourcing.

The company has launched a competition on the crowd-sourcing platform HeroX. According to this description on Coca-Cola's corporate website, Coke is seeking "a naturally sourced, safe, low- or no-calorie compound that creates the taste sensation of sugar when used in beverages." The company says, "one grand prize winner will be awarded $1 million in October 2018."

So, can scientists come up with this kind of sweetener? "Well, this is a hundred-million dollar question, because it's so difficult and so potentially lucrative," says Paul Breslin, a professor in the nutritional sciences department at Rutgers University and a member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center.

Hang on, is it a one million dollar question or a hundred-million dollar question? Maybe I should get Silicon Valley to fund my sugar substitute instead of Coca-Cola.

Related: Coca-Cola Pulls Twitter Campaign after being Tricked into Quoting "Mein Kampf"
Twitter Monetizes By Adding Coca-Cola Emoji (where is our sponsored emoji?)
How Coca Cola's 3D Times Square Advertising Sign Works


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @11:29AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @11:29AM (#565023)

    What's the matter? Stevia not good enough for you? There's hardly any bitter, metallic aftertaste after you get used to it.

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  • (Score: 2) by sgleysti on Friday September 08 2017, @02:02PM (3 children)

    by sgleysti (56) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 08 2017, @02:02PM (#565093)

    Also, I find that sucralose (splenda) tastes a lot like sugar. Before I started using it, I looked up some of the studies on its safety, and it seemed fine.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 08 2017, @04:01PM (2 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday September 08 2017, @04:01PM (#565164) Journal

      The thing about splenda is it affects your glycemic index, the same as nutrasweet and other "diet" sweeteners do. Your body responds to it the way it would to sugar. Stevia doesn't do that. Also, stevia is kind of self-limiting. There's only so much of it you can use before something reaches a maximum sweetness that can't be surpassed, and that maximum is well below the cloying level sugar can achieve. That has a neat side benefit of training your tastebuds away from craving sweet flavors all the time.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 08 2017, @05:08PM (1 child)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday September 08 2017, @05:08PM (#565202) Journal

        Stevia is awesome, yeah. I never touch HFCS now and make my own lemonade and sports drinks (same but add some salt and some KCl) with it. I'm in the weird position of being an American and hating almost all American foods, for the reasons most Europeans and Chinese point out: too sweet, too much fried stuff, no seasonal balance, no real subtlety etc.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 08 2017, @08:27PM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday September 08 2017, @08:27PM (#565301) Journal

          There are glimmers of better options on the horizon as far as the larger culinary scene in America is concerned. I'm a DIY-kind of guy and am quite happy with the organic, heirloom seed banks, green markets and such to secure and make my own healthy meals, but regular consumers are starting to have decent access, too. Thanks to the superfood craze you can get chia seeds, quinoa, hearts of hemp, and that kind of thing at the CostCo's of the world.

          If you like to eat out it's still slim pickings, but a few have popped up. One is the Flexit Cafe [facebook.com] in Ellsworth, Maine. At a couple travel plazas in upstate New York a healthy chain has entered the mix of the usual McDonald's and Sbarros (unfortunately, I can't recall their name at the moment or find them online). The wave of people with gluten issues has helped create that market, I think, but the rest of us who don't have those issues can still piggy-back off that to get better food.

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.