Pepsi cutting aspartame from Diet Pepsi in effort to get health-conscious consumers

PepsiCo is making a last-ditch effort to get consumers back by changing the ingredients of Diet Pepsi. The company is dropping aspartame from the drink as sales continue to drop.

Aspartame-free Diet Pepsi will have a banner explaining that it doesn’t have the sweetener. USA Today reports that the new Diet Pepsi will be sweetened with sucralose and ace-K and will hit stores by August. Pepsi executives say that it will still taste the same.

“Diet cola drinkers in the U.S. told us they wanted aspartame-free Diet Pepsi and we're delivering,” Seth Kaufman, senior vice president of Pepsi and Flavors Portfolio, PepsiCo North America Beverages, said in a statement to CNBC. “We recognize that consumer demand is evolving and we're confident that cola-lovers will enjoy the crisp, refreshing taste of this new product.”

Diet Pepsi made up 4.3 percent of the carbonated soft drink market last year, but volume shrank by 5.2 percent. But Beverage Digest has reported that sales for other diet drinks were down as well. Diet Coke volume dropped 6.6 percent in the U.S. in 2014.

Diet Pepsi will also remove aspartame from Diet Pepsi and Diet Pepsi Caffeine Free.

There have been concerns that aspartame is linked to cancer, but Pepsi insists that the decision is not due to safety concerns, but just because consumers want the sweetener dropped.