NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Artificial sweetener Splenda is planning to come out with a brown sugar version of the product, according to a published report.

The New York Times reported Monday that McNeil Nutritionals, the company that sells the chemical sweetener sucralose, plans to come out with the new brown sugar version of its product. The company is a unit of the consumer products and drug company Johnson & Johnson (Research).

The Times said the new product will be a blend of regular brown sugar and sucralose that has been colored brown, and will give consumers a 50 percent reduction in calories. It is to be called Splenda Brown Sugar Blend.

Splenda's popularity took its manufacturers by surprise last year, with the British ingredients company Tate & Lyle announcing it would have to ration its supply of sucralose due to high demand, the Times reported. Both PepsiCo (Research) and Coca-Cola (Research) have opted to use Splenda in new diet sodas.

Meanwhile the paper reports that sales of both white and brown sugar in the United States have been declining for years, down 10 percent since 1999.