Is Coke ditching high-fructose corn syrup as Trump claims?

President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he has persuaded soda manufacturer Coca-Cola to switch to using cane sugar in its flagship Coke product, which would replace the current sweetener, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

“I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” the president wrote on Truth Social.

The move to cane sugar would align U.S.-made Coke with its counterpart sold in other countries and would please Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has had HFCS in his crosshairs since taking office.

However, since Trump’s announcement, Coca-Cola balked at confirming that it will, in fact, adopt cane sugar in the U.S.

“We appreciate President Trump’s enthusiasm for our iconic Coca‑Cola brand,” the company said in a statement. “More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca‑Cola product range will be shared soon.”

High-fructose corn syrup is significantly cheaper and more available than cane sugar. A gallon of Coke typically contains about 0.9 pounds of HFCS, and in all, about 2.7 billion pounds of HFCS sweetener is used by the company per year.

By some analysts’ estimates, if Coca-Cola were to stop using high-fructose corn syrup in the U.S. and begin sweetening all of its beverages with cane sugar, it could cost them an additional $800 million to $900 million annually. However, this doesn’t account for Trump saying only that the flagship Coke product — not the all of Coca-Cola’s products — would be updated with the new ingredient.

One news outlet explains that Coca-Cola’s original formula, which dates back to the late 1800s, used cane sugar as its sweetener. The company switched to high-fructose corn in the early 1980s amid elevated costs for sugar.

There have not yet been official public statements from corn growers organizations, such as the National Corn Growers Association.