Diet Pepsi just drastically changed its formula

Diet Pepsi is removing aspartame from its recipe. 

"The company will begin to replace aspartame with a blend of sucralose and acesulfame potassium in Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi sold in the US in August," reports Duane Stanford at Bloomberg. 

Diet Pepsi's sales fell 5.2% last year. 

Consumers have become increasingly wary of aspartame, an artificial, man-made sweetener that has been plagued by rumors that it causes cancer. 

Aspartame is often sold under the brand names NutraSweet® and Equal®. 

PepsiCo has introduced a beverage sweetened with natural sweetener Stevia called Pepsi True. 

Some fans of Diet Pepsi expressed panic that the recipe will change. 

Many in the industry expect that brands like Coke and Pepsi will continue moving away from traditional soda as Americans grow to prefer other beverages. 

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