Activist Group Takes Cheap Shot At Coca-Cola Over Small Can Prices

(MoneyWatch)  Going after the Coca-Cola Company is nothing new for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The food watchdog group supports a tax on soda and other sugary drinks (which the soft drink giant opposes) and it recently filed a class-action lawsuit against Coca-Cola's VitaminWater, which CSPI says is deceptively advertised.

But the group's latest complaint doesn't employ science so much as basic math: Coke's new 90-calorie cans cost more per ounce than the regular-sized cans.

Well, duh. Smaller servings always cost more than larger ones -- and they probably should, given that they require more packaging and thus probably use more energy to produce. Is $8.50 a gallon a bit extreme for something like Coke? Probably. Do the new cans deserve ridicule from snarky bloggers? Yes, absolutely. But when it comes to a group of scientists looking at how to best promote public health, one would think they'd have better things to do with their time than attacking a company for making money off of smaller portion sizes. Especially since the 90-calorie cans were a response to consumer demand.

CSPI's real problem with the 90-calorie Coke cans is personal. CSPI doesn't like Coke -- not the company, which opposes CSPI on pretty much every issue having to do with food regulation, and not the product, which CSPI snidely describes as "water & high fructose corn syrup." CSPI just wants to make sure no one is left with the impression its enemy might be doing something right.

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