Equal FAQ

The History of Equal

The History of Equal® and Canderel®

The main sweetening ingredient in Merisant’s leading tabletop brands was discovered in 1965 by Dr. James Schlatter. Schlatter was a scientist at Searle who was doing research with amino acids. Once, when licking his finger to pick up a piece of paper, he tasted a sweet, attractive flavor. He had inadvertently discovered an ingredient that would revolutionize the category of "sweetener."

The ingredient is 180 to 200 times sweeter than sugar and has virtually no calories. Searle branded Schlatter’s new discovery "NutraSweet®."

The newly discovered sweetening ingredient underwent many years of testing before being approved for consumer use for the first time in 1979 in France, where the product was marketed as "Canderel®." Canderel® is a combination of the words "candy" and "airelle," the French word for wild cherry. Marketed only in the pharmaceutical channel at that time, Canderel® took the form of a white tablet, and consumer advertising of the product was not permitted.

Soon the product gained recognition through the support of pharmacists and doctors who lauded the health benefits of the low-calorie sweetener. Canderel®’s superior taste resulted in significant market share for the product, which is still maintained today. By the early 1980s, Canderel® was being marketed in much of Europe.

In 1981, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the tabletop use of NutraSweet®. The following year, Equal® was launched in the US.

Equal® was launched around the same time as the US market launch of the NutraSweet® brand, which helped create brand awareness for Equal®. Equal® quickly became recognized and accepted in the US market.

Unlike its overseas counterpart Canderel®, Equal® was introduced in the US in the form of individual packets, or sachets, rather than tablets. To this day, the sachet remains the most common product form in North America.

Prior to Equal®’s launch, there was only one major product in the high-intensity tabletop sweetener market, which was saccharin-based. But Equal®, with its sweet, clean taste, like sugar, provided consumers with another choice, and its introduction had an immediate and transforming impact on the category.

In 1985, Monsanto acquired Searle. In recent years, the product line has expanded to include price brands and other sweeteners. In 1997, for example, Nutrasweet brand® tabletop sweetener was launched in the United States.

On March 20, 2000, Merisant formally announced the purchase of the tabletop sweetener business from Monsanto. Today, Merisant has close to 700 employees marketing a total of 19 sweetener brands in more than 100 countries globally.