- Sugar would replace high-fructose corn syrup in Coke’s US market
- Trump’s home state of Florida is top sugarcane producer
- RFK Jr. has been critical of high sugar consumption
WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Coca-Cola (KO.N), opens new tab had agreed to use cane sugar in its beverages in the U.S. after his discussions with the company.
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Coca-Cola produced for the U.S. market is typically sweetened with corn syrup, while the company uses cane sugar in some other countries.
The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, named for the social movement aligned with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has pushed food companies to alter their formulations to remove ingredients like artificial dyes.
Kennedy has also been critical of the amount of sugar consumed in the American diet and has said that updated dietary guidelines released this summer will advise Americans to eat “whole food.”
A May report by the MAHA Commission, a panel convened by Trump and tasked with identifying the root causes of chronic disease, said substantial consumption of high-fructose corn syrup could play a role in childhood obesity and other conditions.