• Wall Street Journal , Monday, December 15, 2008 11:15 AM

Coca-Cola will roll out three flavors of a juice drink in its Odwalla line that contain a natural, calorie-free sweetener derived from the herb stevia, sources tell Betsy McCay. They will do so despite the fact that the Food and Drug Administration hadn't formally okayed the use of stevia as an additive as of Sunday.

Stories about both Coke and Pepsi formulating drinks with stevia-based sweeteners -- called Truvia by Coke and PureVia by Pepsi -- have been running for months. Pepsi has several drinks ready to go in the U.S. market, McCay says, but it's waiting for the FDA's imprimatur.

Stevia is approved for use in at least 12 countries and as a dietary supplement in the U.S. But after some studies suggested adverse health effects from stevia-based products, the FDA concluded in the early 1990s that data weren't sufficient to allow its use as a food additive. Coke, Pepsi and companies they are working with say their sweeteners are more highly purified than the versions used in those tests.

Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal »