Bitter sweeteners: Makers of Splenda and Equal stir up in court

If you thought that sugar, or rather, what people think of as sugar, was a light and fluffy matter, think again. The New York Times (subscription required) today has a report on the ugly court battle going on between the makers of Splenda and Equal over what each says is false advertising.

Privately held Marisant Worldwide Inc., which makes Equal, accuses rival Splenda of spending millions of dollars convincing the public that its product is made from sugar and is natural. Splenda contends that its product does indeed start with sugar. So nyaaa.

A tiff over language and marketing? More like an argument over who's got the sweetest portion of the market. Equal was number one for a long while, finding its way into thousands of consumer products, as well as being the sweetener used for Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke. But Splenda, made by a unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), has captured 62% of the $1.5 billion artificial sweetener market since being introduced in 1999. Sweet nothings? Hardly.

Expect a chemistry lesson in what goes into the making of these two popular sweeteners. If nothing else, this battle might help publicize what's actually in those little blue and yellow packets, and why you might be just as well off dropping a spoonful of the real stuff into your morning cup.