Splenda Dominates Sweetener Market, But Johnson & Johnson Will Sell Product Line

Heartland Food Products Group, which already sells sweeteners based on sucralose, will acquire the Splenda product line from Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Nutritionals business unit for an undisclosed amount. Sucralose recently surpassed aspartame as the sweetener market leader. But despite safety approval by the FDA and more than a hundred scientific studies, sucralose has fallen victim to a rising tide of food activist and consumer sentiment against artificial ingredients. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, for example, now tags sucralose as “caution” instead of “safe.”