PepsiCo’s new lab, Yale and why we might have healthier snack choices

Soft drink companies usually get a bad rap in the raging debate about obesity. So it would seem encouraging that PepsiCo recently opened a research lab to study and develop more healthful products. And it happens to be right next to Yale University.

This Hartford Courant story describes the connection this way: “The lab has no formal affiliation with Yale, but it operates near the campus and the researchers say they hope to benefit from their proximity to the university’s resources.”

Then there’s the matter of PepsiCo awarding a $250,000 fellowship to a Yale Medical School program for research on nutrition and obesity-related diseases. The idea of such a relationship, if there is one, didn’t sit well with everyone. “To me, the bottom line is we don’t need Pepsi-funded research in any way,” Yale graduate and food industry book author Michele Simon tells the paper. “We don’t need any kind of science to tell us to stop eating Cheetos or drinking Mountain Dew.” Here’s what PepsiCo says about the lab and the fellowship.

Regardless, big food and drink companies rely on labs to help them develop new and even healthier products. For example, companies like Kraft, General Mills, Sara Lee and others signed on to a voluntary war on salt initiated by the FDA this year. A Los Angeles Times story explains how: “To lower salt levels while still pleasing the palates of a salt-obsessed nation, companies are turning to new strategies — from the low-tech end, simply subbing in other spices, to, on the higher-tech end, developing molecules that can replace or enhance salt.”