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<keyword id="6391475" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Coca-Cola">Coca-Cola</keyword> has said it will drop a controversial chemical ingredient from all of its drinks, including <keyword id="6810070" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fanta">Fanta</keyword> and <keyword id="146909" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Powerade">Powerade</keyword>. 
 According to the company, the ingredient, known as brominated vegetable oil or <keyword id="2228051" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="BVO">BVO</keyword>, is still being used in some flavours of Fanta and Fresca, as well as some fountain drinks. The change in composition will take place across the globe. 
 
Commenting on the development, Josh Gold, spokesperson for Coca-Cola, said that the chemical concerned is not used in many countries. 
The Associated Press reported on Sunday that Coca-Cola is dropping BVO from Powerade, after PepsiCo had made a similar move in 2013. 
 
On Monday, Coca-Cola said all its drinks are “safe and comply with regulations” in different countries around the world. It further added that the BVO is used to “improve the stability of its drinks and prevent certain ingredients from separating.” However, the company will drop the chemical in order to be consistent with the ingredients it uses around the world. 
 
Coca-Cola said it would phase out the use of BVO in the US by the end of 2014. 
 
The recent shift towards natural food has led some brands to avoid using controversial ingredients or chemicals.

Coca-Cola To Drop Controversial Chemical From Its Drinks

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesCoca-Cola has announced it will remove a controversial ingredient, Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO), from Powerade after a similar move by PepsiCo's Gatorade last year.</div></div>
Coca-Cola is removing the controversial ingredient Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) from Powerade, <a href="http://consumerist.com/2014/05/05/coca-cola-getting-rid-of-brominated-vegetable-oil-in-powerade/" target="_blank">Consumerist reports</a>.
But if you are getting ready to cheer and gleefully guzzle down some Powerade, you might want to reconsider: Removing BVO from sweetened beverages, as PepsiCo did with Gatorade last year, does not make them healthy.
In fact, if a soft drink contains BVO, there's a very good chance you are already consuming something that's pretty bad for you - BVO or not.
<h2>What is BVO?</h2>
If beverage manufacturers added fruit and citrus flavoring to carbonated water without a stabilizer like BVO, the flavor would separate from the water and float to the top. (Imagine trying to keep oil and water evenly mixed.) This would look gross and probably taste unpleasant too.
Adding BVO to flavorings lets food scientists <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814612000921" target="_blank">change their density</a>, so that they evenly mix with the rest of the drink and ensure you get that lemony flavor in every sip. (Yum, chemistry!)
BVO is found in Mountain Dew, Fresca, Fanta Orange, and a number of other citrus-y drinks. It caused a ruckus last year when a teenager's <a href="https://www.change.org/petitions/gatorade-don-t-put-flame-retardant-chemicals-in-sports-drinks" target="_blank">Change.org petition</a> asking Gatorade to remove it garnered more than 200,000 signatures.
She pointed out that it was also used as a flame retardant ("Its use as a flame retardant does not preclude its use as a food ingredient so long as the food use is safe," an FDA spokesperson <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/brominated-battle-in-sodas" target="_blank">said</a>). The EPA is <a href="http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/workplans.html" target="_blank">currently</a> investigating <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/flame-retardants-in-consumer-products-are-linked-to-health-and-cognitive-problems/2013/04/15/f5c7b2aa-8b34-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html" target="_blank">the health risks of brominated flame retardants</a>, but we'll stick to a discussion of the use of BVO as a food additive.
<h2>Is BVO safe?</h2>
For decades, the FDA has allowed BVO as <a href="http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?FR=180.30%20" target="_blank">a food additive on an "interim" basis</a>, meaning they believe it is safe, although additional studies could conceivably find that it should be banned (as <a href="https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/portal/index.cfm?event=notificationDetail&amp;NOTIF_REFERENCE=2014.AGC" target="_blank">it is in the European Union</a>). The concentration of BVO in a beverage cannot legally exceed 15 parts per million (that's 0.0015%).
There is some concern that <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/bvo/faq-20058236" target="_blank">BVO builds up in the body</a>, reaching levels that could be dangerous. But early FDA studies actually tested BVO in animals at levels as high 3,600 parts per million and <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/brominated-battle-in-sodas" target="_blank">found no effects</a>.
While there's plenty of reasons to double check the safety of chemicals in our foods, an ingredient like BVO added in tiny amounts is not the real problem with your soda addiction, and focusing on these compounds takes away the heat from the real problem: the added sugar.
<h2>Newsflash: Soda is not healthy</h2>
Stories of people who have been poisoned by BVO miss the main facts: These people were drinking soda in mind-blowing amounts. 
You may have heard about the man who developed a rare case of brominism (a kind of poisoning) after drinking too much fruity soda. The story is true - but there's an important caveat: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9140329%20" target="_blank">He was drinking two to four liters</a> of the soda every day.
Another patient, a 63-year-old man, <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200305083481921%20" target="_blank">developed ulcers on his hands</a> after drinking 8 liters of Ruby Red Squirt - daily, for several months.
That means that while both men were consuming more BVO than was safe, they were also ingesting a minimum of 250 grams of sugar - more than 20 times the amount recommended by the World Health Organization's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/effects-of-eating-too-much-sugar-2014-3">updated guidelines</a>.
"Any normal level of consumption of BVO would not cause any health problems - except the risk of diabetes and obesity from drinking that much sugar water," Zane Horowitz, medical director of the Oregon Poison Center, told <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/brominated-battle-in-sodas" target="_blank">Environmental Health News</a>.
<h2>What should you do?</h2>
Powerade, Gatorade, and other sports drinks don't have nearly as much sugar as, say, Mountain Dew, but they still have around 20 grams per serving - or up to 50 grams if you thirstily consume a whole bottle after a run. While brominated vegetable oil comes near the very end of Powerade's <a href="http://www.us.powerade.com/" target="_blank">ingredient list</a>, high-fructose corn syrup is number two.
"While any harms of BVO are speculative, the public health toll of excess calories and sugar is well-established," <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/brominated-vegetable-oil_b_2599535.html" target="_blank">notes Dr. David Katz</a>, the director of the Yale Prevention Research Center. "I don't drink any of the products that contain BVO - and wouldn't drink them if they didn't, either."
You may want to follow Katz's advice: If you're concerned about your health enough to petition a soda company about BVO, you'd be better off just avoiding soda and sugar-sweetened beverages all together.

Powerade Just Removed The Controversial Ingredient 'BVO' - But That Ingredient Should Be The Least Of Your Concerns

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US Food and Drug Administration announced it wants to ban the additive brominated vegetable oil.</li><li>The product helps stabilize citrus flavor in some sodas and juices, but can build up in the body.</li></ul>This week, the US Food and Drug Administration <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/brominated-vegetable-oil-bvo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed revoking</a> a regulation that authorizes the use of brominated vegetable oil in food.Food companies have used the additive BVO since the 1920s. For decades, manufacturers used it to keep fruit flavoring in a stable form that doesn't separate and rise to the top. It was used in some sodas, fruit juices, and other drinks with citrus oil."The agency concluded that the intended use of BVO in food is no longer considered safe after the results of studies conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found the potential for adverse health effects in humans," James Jones, the FDA's deputy commissioner for human foods, said in <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-proposes-ban-food-additive-continues-assessments-additional-chemicals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement</a> released Thursday.He noted that the move follows a recent ban on the ingredient in California. In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/AB-418-Signing.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed a law</a> prohibiting the sale of food or drink items with BVO and other ingredients like red dye 3 and potassium bromate.The FDA is accepting comments on its proposal through January 17, 2024.<h2>How can you tell what drinks contain BVO?</h2>In 1958, the FDA gained the authority to determine the safety of food ingredients. In the years following, it listed BVO as generally recognized as safe.Over the years, new data showed potential health effects, and the FDA removed it from the GRAS list in the '60s. The agency limited its use to a stabilizer that couldn't exceed the level of 15 parts per million in the drinks.The FDA notes that many beverage companies have since found alternative stabilizers. For example, in 2014, Coca-Cola announced it was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coca-cola-removing-bvo-from-powerade-2014-5">removing BVO from Powerade</a> drinks.But you may still find BVO in some soft drinks or other fruit-flavored drinks.If you want to avoid BVO, you should check the ingredients in sodas, fruit drinks, lemonade, and juices.When used, BVO is required to be listed as an ingredient on the label as "brominated vegetable oil" or as the specific oil that has been brominated, such as "brominated soybean oil".<h2>BVO side effects</h2>The FDA has been monitoring the effects of BVO since the 1970s, after a report showed that it could cause heart problems when taken in large doses, according to the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/brominated-vegetable-oil-bvo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agency's press release</a>. In the decades since, sparse reports have emerged about its potential harms.There are anecdotal reports of people visiting the hospital with telltale signs of bromine poisoning — headache, fatigue, memory loss, and problems walking. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9140329/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In one 1997 case,</a> doctors determined that a patient had gotten the condition from drinking 2-4 liters of soda with BVO in it a day.BVO can also hurt the parts of your body used in eating and drinking, Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietitian at the Mayo Clinic, <a href="https://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy/articles/brominated-vegetable-oil-dangers-side-effects" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Food Network</a>. "Health concerns about BVO stem from one of its ingredients, bromine. Bromine can irritate the skin, nose, mouth" she said.In a 2022 report published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, the FDA found that BVO may build up in mice <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thyroid-health-need-to-know-2018-8">thyroids</a> over time, becoming toxic. Though they conducted these tests in mice, not humans, the agency deemed its results were significant enough to recommend against the use of BVO in food.In humans, thyroids help control blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and metabolism. Thyroid damage can cause weight fluctuations, heart rate irregularity, decreased energy, poor bone health, <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/disorders-of-the-thyroid#:~:text=Problems%20with%20the%20thyroid%20include,pregnancy%20and%20many%20other%20functions." target="_blank" rel="noopener">and more</a>.The final results of the proposal won't be fully processed until 2024, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/health/brominated-vegetable-oil-ban-fda-proposal-wellness/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN reported</a>.

The FDA proposed to ban brominated vegetable oil. Here's how to tell if it's in your food, and why the FDA thinks it's unsafe to drink.

You Searched For "BVO" and got 3 results

Coca-Cola To Drop Controversial Chemical From Its Drinks

BI India Bureau

Powerade Just Removed The Controversial Ingredient 'BVO' - But That Ingredient Should Be The Least Of Your Concerns

Lauren F Friedman

The FDA proposed to ban brominated vegetable oil. Here's how to tell if it's in your food, and why the FDA thinks it's unsafe to drink.

Jenny McGrath,Maiya Focht

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