Sugar industry wants to say a mouthful

Sugar is trying to reclaim its sweet name.

The sweetener, once known as ''white gold" because only the wealthy could afford it, has been fending off challenges for half a century, but none stiffer than now.

Sales of sugar have declined for the past four years. Widening concern about health and obesity is pushing consumers and food manufacturers to seek alternatives. Sugar's national trade organization, meanwhile, has taken the battle to court. It's suing the substitute sweetener named Splenda for misrepresenting its name, and has prompted a countersuit by Splenda's manufacturer.

The Sugar Association is spending as much as $5 million to hire a marketing company to devise a campaign to promote its product.

''We're tired of our competition defining who we are," said Andrew C. Briscoe III, president and chief executive of the Washington-based group.

Sugar is the latest staple to mount a public relations offensive as concerns about expanding waistlines and other health matters have grown. During the past generation, milk, beef, pork, Florida oranges, and bread have all had to redefine themselves with aggressive marketing. The campaigns not only have won back customers, they've become some of the most famed advertisements of their time.

Remember ''Pork: the Other White Meat" and ''Beef. It's What's for Dinner"? The milk industry created the ''Got Milk?" slogan after losing sales to bottled water and diet soda. The Idaho Potato Commission recently hired fitness guru Denise Austin to promote the nutritional value of potatoes in the face of low-carb diets.

''When you're under attack, I think you have to fight back. You have to present facts and try to change perceptions," said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a food industry research and consulting company in Chicago.

''Minor declines in consumption have a huge impact," he said. ''The sugar industry is not going to go away, but a 1 to 2 percent decline can mean a lot to the industry."

The sugar industry wants people to know that sugar in moderation, at 15 calories a teaspoon, isn't so bad for them. ''We're saying that sugar should be part of a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle," Briscoe said.

Sugar replaced honey as the main mass market sweetener in the 20th century as automation helped drive down the price. Although still dominant, it now competes with 22 substitute sweeteners on the market.

Saccharin became popular in 1957 as ''Sweet N Low," but reports that it caused cancer in lab rats scared off potential users of the pink packaged product. Aspartame hit the market in blue packs of ''Equal" in the 1980s. It also gained at sugar's expense, but, too, was hampered by concerns about potential health risks and obstacles to using it in baking.

Sucralose, introduced as Splenda in 1999 on a limited basis in the United States, presented a new challenge. It tastes like sugar, works well for baking, and has no calories. Splenda sales increased 50 percent last year, while sales of white granulated sugar dropped nearly 5 percent, according to Information Resource Inc.

The sugar association in December sued McNeil Nutritionals LLC, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which owns the Splenda trademark. The trade group contended that McNeil misled consumers with its claim that Splenda is made from sugar.

McNeil responded with its own lawsuit this month, accusing the Sugar Association and other groups of waging a ''malicious smear campaign" to boost sugar sales.