December 16/Atlanta/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- As Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo sense demand from consumers and pressure from regulators to sell more lower-calorie drinks, some of the hottest competition between the old rivals is happening in sweetener laboratories.
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola inked deals recently with scientific outfits to find and commercialize natural sweeteners. They are also investigating enhancers that would allow scientists to use smaller amounts of sweeteners such as sugar, derivatives of a shrub called stevia or high-fructose corn syrup. High-fructose corn syrup is the most common sweetener used in soft drinks in the United States.