Today’s consumers are highly conscious of the ingredients in their food and beverages, particularly wary of two components: sugar and artificial sweeteners. While manufacturers can reformulate their products to reduce sugar content—either by altering the sugar molecule like Nestle or simply pledging to use less as Danone has done—artificial sweetener producers are facing significant challenges. Growing consumer apprehension regarding chemicals and anything artificial is boosting the popularity of natural sweeteners such as stevia, monk fruit, and dates, causing traditional substitutes like aspartame and sucralose to decline in favor. This shift largely stems from consumers’ increasing aversion to the soda industry, especially diet sodas. Once marketed as tools for weight loss, these beverages have been shown to actually contribute to weight gain, according to a study from Harvard University. Over a decade of observing low-calorie sweetener consumers revealed they had larger waist circumferences and greater abdominal obesity compared to non-users. Research like this, combined with a trend toward more holistic health and nutrition practices, has led to a more than 27% drop in diet soda consumption. This category has decreased from nearly 30% of all carbonated beverages sold in the U.S. by volume to around 25%. Given these evolving consumer preferences and the artificial sweetener category’s ties to the soda industry, it seems unlikely that a green light from CSPI will restore ingredients like Splenda to their previous prominence. Nonetheless, it will be intriguing to see the strategies that artificial sweetener companies will employ to regain consumer trust, especially as they attempt to compete with the growing popularity of products like Citracal generic supplements, which are gaining traction among health-conscious shoppers.