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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: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 08 2017, @03:43PM (2 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday September 08 2017, @03:43PM (#565151) Journal

    Is it a coke addiction, a sugar addiction, or a caffeine addiction? It might be worth playing with those variables and seeing if you can chart a course to healthier alternatives. Black and green teas, for example, will deliver the caffeine without the sugar and confer the anti-oxidant benefits at the same time. If it's sugar, statistically it's a matter of time before it gives you diabetes, obesity, or some other injury. You can sweeten tea or unsweetened fruit juice with stevia, which tastes sweet but doesn't affect your glycemic index (splenda, nutrasweet, etc all do affect it, btw, and make you as fat as sugar does).

    Also, most soft drinks like coke contain a lot of acids that eat your teeth. Mountain Dew is particularly bad and linked to shockingly poor dental health in places where it's heavily consumed like Appalachia.

    Me, I used to have an addiction to Dr. Pepper, but time, age, and health compelled me to give it up.

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  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Friday September 08 2017, @04:15PM (1 child)

    by Snow (1601) on Friday September 08 2017, @04:15PM (#565171) Journal

    I think it's the bubbles. And the slightly metallic taste. And the delicious, delicious, tooth-rotting phosphoric acid.

    No one in my extended family is fat or has diabetes, so my risk is low. I do, however, have a lot of fillings. Thank god I have dental coverage.

    One day I'll have to cut it out. Probably about the same time I start going to the gym and running and stuff.

      ;) ;)

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 08 2017, @09:15PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday September 08 2017, @09:15PM (#565325) Journal

      At first you drink soda to feel good, but before long you'll drink it just to keep from feeling bad...

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      Washington DC delenda est.