Donald Trump returns to be talked about, this time in the food field, claiming to have convinced Coca-Cola to change the recipe for his flagship drink in the United States. In a post on Truth Social, the president said the company will use a new ingredient and that “it will simply be better“.
But is it just like that?
What changes in the Coca-Cola recipe
What change is it? OfIntroduction of “real brown sugar” which will replace the high fructose corn syrup.
Perhaps you don’t know that in the United States, Coca-Cola is traditionally sweetened with corn syrup, an economic ingredient than brown sugar, introduced in the formula starting from the 80s to reduce production costs. In other countries, such as Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia and also in Europe, however, the drink is sweetened with brown sugar or traditional sugar, which many consumers believe gives a better taste.
Trump made the news known by thanking the Coca-Cola company leaders for the alleged availability for change. The company, however, has not officially confirmed the modification of the recipe, limiting itself to declaring that “Details will soon be shared on the new innovative proposals of the Coca-Cola range“.
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An initiative to public health?
The initiative, even if it has not been explicit, probably fits into the wider plan promoted by the Secretary of Health appointed by Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called “Make America Healthy Again”, which aims to push food companies to reformulate their products to reduce the use of ingredients associated with health problems. Among these are precisely corn syrup but also refined oils and artificial dyes, considered co -responsible for the increase in obesity and diabetes, especially in the youngest.
However, the problem is that Replace the corn syrup with brown sugar will not make coca-cola a better drink nor much healthy: In fact, it remains a product rich in sugars, whose excessive consumption is harmful to health. Changing a single ingredient does not deal with the basic problem of a product to be consumed with extreme moderation, if not to be completely avoided.
The reaction of the corn industry
The possible turning point in the Coca-Cola formula, however, raised the opposition of the corn industry. John Bode, president of the Corn Refiners Association, warned that The replacement of corn syrup with brown sugar could cause serious economic consequences: loss of thousands of jobs, decrease in income for farmers and increased sugar imports from abroad, without any real advantage for health.
The clash between sugar and syrup also has a geographical-political nuance: while corn is largely cultivated in the states of the midwest, cane sugar is produced above all in Florida, a state in which Trump resides and which represents one of its electoral strongholds.
Trump does not drink the classic Coca Cola
Curiously, Trump is known to be a great consumer not of the traditional coca-cola that would like to “improve”, but Diet cokea version without sugar or corn syrup, sweetened instead with aspartame, a very controversial artificial additive. When he was at the White House, he even made a button on the desk of the oval studio to order his favorite drink with a simple touch.
A detail that adds color to the story, but which is not surprising much, considering Trump’s habit of making announcements of strong media impact. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if the American cans of Coca-Cola really will soon contain cane sugar, or if it is just an image operation without real consequences.
Sources: White House Instagram/ BBC
