Sierra Mist to give out millions of free can samples at Wal-Mart this weekend

Sierra Mist to give out 10 million free cans

PURCHASE, N.Y. — PepsiCo is giving away more than 10 million free cans of Sierra Mist Natural soda this weekend at Wal-Mart stores. The giveaway is to promote its new version of the lemon-lime soda sweetened with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

The company announced last month it was remaking the drink by also removing preservatives.

So now it plans to give out millions of cans at 2,800 Walmart supercenters on Saturday.

Shoppers are concerned about artificial ingredients, so companies are removing high fructose corn syrup from a slew of products.

People are concerned that high fructose corn syrup is more harmful or more likely to cause obesity than sugar, perceptions for which there is little scientific evidence.