Wegmans Is Discontinuing Its Soda Brand After Concerns Over Ingredients

Amid concerns about artificial ingredients like aspartame and high fructose corn syrup, Wegmans has announced it is discontinuing WPOP, its 33-year-old store-brand soda. Shoppers of the Rochester, New York-based grocery chain may have noticed a 43% discontinuation sale on the soda, knocking the price of a two-liter bottle down to $0.56. The move will affect all Wegmans locations across the country. 

Wegmans' note to customers explains that the artificial ingredients don't meet the brand's "Food You Feel Good About" standards. It says they've "Made the difficult decision to stop offering Wegman's Brand Soda. [They] are committed to helping [their] customers live healthier, better lives through exceptional food." Dr. Stephen Cook, a pediatrician and adult internist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, told Rochester news outlet WHAM 13 that ingredients like aspartame and high fructose corn syrup can affect gut bacteria. He said that although one soda might be okay, having two or three a day might cause "some gastric distress, some gas, some unpleasant bowel movements" and even migraines.

Customers are, expectedly, having a split reaction. One took to Facebook with an all-caps, five-exclamation-point "BRING BACK WPOP!!!!" Another posted praise of the move to rid stores of items with these kinds of artificial ingredients, saying she hoped to see much more of this across the U.S.

One of Wegmans' core missions is "Helping people live healthier, better lives through exceptional food." It has a team of nutritionists and, unsurprisingly, none of them list WPOP as their favorite among Wegmans brand products. The Daily Meal reached out to a Wegmans representative for comment regarding whether it would be addressing other items that fall outside its parameters of "no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives." The request for comment was returned without a direct answer.

WPOP isn't the only product that would seem to fall short of its feel-good promise. Wegmans' pancake syrup contains high fructose corn syrup. The brand's no-sugar-added ice creams contain sucralose, an artificial sweetener labeled by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration as authorized and safe. The Wegmans Brand strawberry sundae crunch ice cream bars contain red 40 coloring and "red and white artificially flavored crunches." Although Wegmans isn't naming any future products as being in danger of discontinuation, these items fall outside its "Food You Feel Good About" banner under the current framework.

A hazard and risk assessment of aspartame was released a little over a month ago by the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It showed that the artificial sweetener held possible carcinogenic potential in humans, but found no need to change the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives' existing acceptable levels. That said, it is increasingly unpopular, and Wegmans is betting most of its shoppers agree.