Source: CNN
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The makers of the country’s two most popular artificial sweeteners head to court Monday, with Equal claiming newcomer Splenda is misleading consumers by telling them the product is made from sugar, according to reports Friday. Merisant Co., the maker of Equal and NutraSweet, contends the maker of Splenda is guilty of false advertising with its “Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar” slogan, The New York Times said Friday.

Splenda is made from sucralose, a chemical ingredient its maker, Johnson & Johnson (Charts)-owned McNeil Nutritionals, synthesizes in a lab from table sugar, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company is expected to argue that “made from” sugar is not the same as “made with,” the Times reported. But since Splenda doesn’t actually list sugar as one of of the ingredients on the box, Merisant claims Splenda shouldn’t be able to claim that its made from sugar, the Journal said.

Equal was once the dominant artificial sweetener in a $1.5 billion market and found its way into over 6,000 commercial products, the Times reported. But Splenda has bumped Equal from its top spot, and now controls 62 percent of the U.S. market, the Times said.