If you’ve been jonesing for a new kind of Gatorade, you’ll have a while longer to wait: after announcing last year that it was working on an organic version of Gatorade that it would unleash upon the masses in 2016, PepsiCo now says it’s pushing back the release date for that planned beverage to sometime in 2017.
“It’s in our road map to do Gatorade with less artificial [flavors], and we are developing a G organic that we are planning to launch next year, and then we plan to evaluate the rest of the portfolio to have better choices for athletes,” Xavi Cortadellas, Head of Innovation at Gatorade told TheStreet.
As for why it’s making a move to the organic side, Al Carey, the CEO of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, said last year that it’s what customers want.
“It’s a consumer interest,” Carey said then. “I think they’re very interested in non-GMO [genetically modified organisms] and organic, and to the degree you can make it meaningful to the consumer — do it.”
Of course, Pepsi isn’t alone on the organic bandwagon: companies like Papa John’s, Hershey’s, Panera, Campbell’s, Schwan, Subway, Aldi, Mondelez, and more all removed or have promised to stop using artificial flavors and additives in some of their products in response to consumer demand for less processed foods.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist