PepsiCo Opens Nutrition Research Laboratory, Aims For Healthy Foods Market

PepsiCo has opened a nutrition research laboratory at the Science Park in New Haven, aiming to find ways to make its snack products healthier. The laboratory is manned by eight full-time scientists and includes up to date equipment, such as spectrometers and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machines. Although some people distrust PepsiCo’s healthy-foods credentials, the company claims it is part of its efforts to develop and market healthful products. The company’s chief scientific officer, Mehmood Khan, was hired in 2007 and aims to reduce sodium and added sugar by 25% and saturated fat by 15% from PepsiCo’s leading products. Also, the company has awarded the Yale Medical School’s graduate and post-graduate studies department a $250,000 fellowship for students working on topics about nutrition and obesity-related diseases, the acceptance of which has attracted criticism from inside the university.