Equal takes on Splenda in Court

Next Monday, the maker of Equal will take the maker of Splenda to Federal District court in Philadelphia. Since Splenda was introduced in 1999, it has replaced Equal as the Number 1 artificial sweetener in the United States with 62 percent of the market.

The case centers on Splenda’s advertising, which states “Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar.” Equal claims that to be an “urban myth” on its website.

Spenda’s main ingredient is sucralose, which does not appear naturally. There are dozens of ways to make sucralose, some of which use sucrose. The maker of Spenda states that the process it uses involves sugar. To make sucralose, three Chlorine atoms that are naturally found in foods like salt and lettuce to a molecule of sucrose(sugar). The sucrose vanishes during the process, but the result, sucralose, is 600 times as sweet as sugar. Splenda then mixes two bulking agents, dextrose and maltodextrin.

The key issue appears to be what you can say about a lab product and its relationship to nature. Equal, an aspartame product, is composed of two amino acids and a methyl ester group….and those has no relationship to actual sugar…despite its sweetness. It describes its product in advertisements as “like sugar”.

Equal’s ally in this lawsuit is the Sugar Association, a trade and lobbying group for the natural sugar industry, which has separately sued the company. If Splenda isn’t sugar, can it point out it starts out as sugar, or is that misleading advertising.

As the New York Times points out, the situation could change the market share of the industry, and it all comes down to consumer perceptions and how they interpret these claims.