Coca-Cola-Coke, PepsiCo-Lay's to under major changes? What consumers need to know
is planning to highlight what will no longer be in its potato or tortilla chips - artificial colors or flavors - when it re-launches its
Lay's
and Tostitos brands later this year, executives said on Thursday. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said Coca-Cola will start using cane sugar in its beverages in the U.S., a dietary preference of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Both Pepsi and Coke use high-fructose corn syrup for their sodas, which is generally more cost-effective.
PepsiCo-Lay's Rebranding?
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The overhaul for the company's top-selling snack brands comes as U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushes Americans to eat "whole foods" and pressures manufacturers to ditch dyes. U.S. food makers have been announcing plans to remove dyes from their products and introduce new ones without the colors under pressure from Kennedy and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) social movement backing him.
"We're trying to elevate the real food perception of Lay's. If you think about the simplest and most natural snack, it is a potato chip; it's a potato, it's oil, and it's a little bit of salt—the most simple, no artificial ingredients," said CEO Ramon Laguarta in a call with investors.
The company also said it was expanding use of avocado and olive oil across its brands, rather than the canola or soybean oil it uses. The MAHA movement has questioned the health benefits of certain food oils.
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In April, PepsiCo said it planned to migrate its entire portfolio to natural colors, or give consumers the option to have a product without a synthetic dye. Its Cheetos snacks and Gatorade drinks rely on synthetic dyes for their bright hues.
It already offers Lay's and Doritos without artificial colors or flavors under its Simply segment.
Coca-Cola Coke
A possible move by Coca-Cola, and other beverage and food industries, to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup as a sweetener would be difficult and expensive to implement, while mostly negative for farmers in the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Coca-Cola had agreed to use cane sugar in its beverages in the country after his discussions with the maker of the top soda pop brand.
The company already sells Coke made from cane sugar in other markets, including Mexico, and some U.S. grocery stores carry glass bottles with cane sugar labeled "Mexican" Coke. In response to Trump's comment, Coca-Cola said "more details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon.'
Around 400 million bushels of corn is used annually to make corn syrup for drinks and other food products, representing around 2.5 per cent of U.S. corn production, according to U.S. government data.
The U.S. produces around 3.6 million metric tons of cane sugar per year, half of that in Trump's home state of Florida, compared with around 7.3 million tons of corn syrup. Trump's ongoing trade wars, however, would make it difficult to cover the deficit, sugar analyst Michael McDougall said. "It will most likely come from Brazil," he said, referring to the world's top cane sugar producer, "but Trump just hit Brazil with a 50 per cent import tariff."
FAQs
Q1. Who is US Health Secretary?
A1. US Health Secretary is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Q2. What do we know about corn syrup?
A2. Around 400 million bushels of corn is used annually to make corn syrup for drinks and other food products, representing around 2.5 per cent of U.S. corn production, according to U.S. government data.
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Business Standard
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First Post
9 minutes ago
- First Post
Trump's tariff threat: For India, no deal is better than a bad one
Trade deals aren't T20s—they're Test matches, needing years of diplomacy, while President Trump wants them wrapped up in days read more America is India's largest trading partner. Still, the world is larger than the US, and India is a sovereign global power. File Image/Reuters The President of the United States, Donald Trump, issues policy decisions and administrative orders from golf courses, aboard Air Force One, on his social media platform Truth Social, and occasionally from the White House in the form of Executive Orders. For President Trump, 'tariff' is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Once again, on July 31, 2025, Trump disrupted the global trade order, sending markets into turmoil with a sweeping revision of ad valorem duties on imports from nearly 200 countries. His latest Executive Order was issued just a day before his extended deadline to the world expired on August 1, 2025. 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The author is a multi-disciplinary thought leader with Action Bias and an India based impact consultant. He is a keen watcher of changing national and international scenarios. He works as President Advisory Services of Consulting Company BARSYL. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
Time of India
9 minutes ago
- Time of India
India aghast at Donald Trump's ‘dead' economy jibe, 25% tariffs
India is facing shock and dismay after the US imposed a surprise 25% tariff, with businesses and policymakers assessing the impact. Trump's remarks on India's trade barriers and alignment with Russia have sparked criticism and concern. While India weighs its options, businesses fear squeezed profit margins and potential job cuts, hoping for improved negotiations. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads 'Blunt-Force' Message Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Negotiating Tactic Shock, dismay and angst swept across India as businesses, policymakers and citizens digested US President Donald Trump's sharp remarks and a surprise 25% tariff rate earlier this Indian government officials weighed a response and business groups tallied the cost of the trade barrier, the local social media flared up with users protesting Trump's comments and criticizing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking started with Trump saying that India's trade barriers were the 'most strenuous and obnoxious,' in a Truth Social post July 30. He added the US may also impose a penalty for New Delhi's purchase of Russian weapons and energy. Less than a day later, he ripped into India again for aligning with Russia, calling them 'dead economies' in another no imminent trade deal, the 25% tariffs kicked in as of Friday. India is hardly alone in facing Trump's trade wrath — and not the subject to the very highest rates — but the news left business and political leaders wondering how to cope with the fallout.'Overnight, the US-India trade equation shifted from tense to turbulent,' said Akshat Garg, assistant vice president at Choice Wealth, a Mumbai based financial services firm. The levies 'feel less like structured policy and more like a blunt-force political message.'Complicating the narrative around the India trade deal — or the lack of it — was the US pact with its traditional rival Pakistan that came through on the same the US released rates across the world on Aug. 1, India's relative disadvantage to competitor exporting countries became more apparent, dampening moods and stoking tempers further.'The biggest blow is that Pakistan and Bangladesh got a better rate than us,' V. 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A director at Kanodia Global, a closely held exporter that gets over 40% of its revenue from the US selling home fabrics to toys, the entrepreneur already has two of its largest US customers seeking discounts to make up for the levy.'The next six months are going to be difficult for everyone,' Kanodia said, adding that profit margins will be squeezed. If the pain continues for 'months and months,' he said he'll have to start cutting his US is India's largest trading partner, with the two-way trade between them at an estimated $129.2 billion in with India's 25%, Bangladesh was subjected to a 20% tariff, Vietnam got a 20% levy and Indonesia and Pakistan each received 19% duties.'We know that we have got a deal that is worse than other countries,' said Sabyasachi Ray, executive director at The Gem and Jewelry Export Promotion Council. 'We will take it up with the government.'Trump's actions mark a 180-degree turn for New Delhi's hopes of preferential treatment over regional peers. It was among the first to engage Washington in trade talks in February, confident of hammering out a deal sooner than had called India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'my friend' in a Feb. 14 post on X and the bond between the two countries 'special.'India is now weighing options to placate the White House, including boosting US imports, Bloomberg News reported citing people familiar with the matter, and many hope that the bilateral relationship and the tariff rate can still be improved.'It is a storm in the India-US relationship at this moment but I think there's a good chance that it will go away,' Vivek Mishra, deputy director of the Strategic Studies Programme at Delhi based Observer Researcher Foundation, told Bloomberg business and trade groups are supporting the government's stance on the deal as the negotiations for a US-India trade deal businesses 'are worried but they are not panicking' because they hope a more favorable deal can be worked out, said Ray of the gems export body. 'The negotiation that should be happening should be a win-win, not a win-lose.'The abrupt announcement by Trump over social media when negotiations with India were ongoing 'seems like a knee-jerk reaction,' according to Rohit Kumar, founding partner at public policy research firm The Quantum Hub.'This appears to be a negotiating tactic aimed at unresolved discussion points,' Kumar said.
