Jan 25 - Gatorade to remove controversial ingredient

NEW YORK (AP) -- PepsiCo Inc. is removing a controversial ingredient from its Gatorade sports drink in response to customer complaints.

Molly Carter, a spokeswoman for the company, said Friday that the removal of brominated vegetable oil was in the works over the past year after the company began "hearing rumblings" from consumers about the ingredient. She said it wasn't a reaction to a recent petition on Change.org by a Mississippi teenager.

The ingredient is also used in other drinks, including some flavors of Powerade made by rival Coca-Cola Co. The Atlanta-based company did not say whether it would remove the ingredient from Powerade as well but noted that it takes customer concerns into account when looking for ways to improve its drinks.

Ingredients in food and drinks have come under greater scrutiny in recent years, helped by the ability of consumers to mobilize online. The petition on Change.org noted that brominated vegetable oil has been patented as a flame retardant and is banned in Japan and the European Union. It had more than 200,000 supporters Friday.

For Gatorade, Carter said the ingredient is used as an "emulsifier," meaning it distributes flavoring evenly so that it doesn't collect at the surface. She said it was used only in select varieties including orange and "citrus cooler." Other drinks that use brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, include Coca-Cola's Fanta and PepsiCo's Mountain Dew. A spokesman for competitor Dr Pepper Snapple Group was not available to comment on whether the ingredient is used in any of its drinks.

Carter noted that the ingredient is not banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and that PepsiCo's decision wasn't the result of any health or safety concerns. She said it was specifically a response to concerns expressed by Gatorade customers. The company's decision was first reported by the trade journal Beverage Digest.

Pulin Mondi, a spokesman for Change.org, said the move reflects the "shift in power we're seeing between businesses and their customers."

PepsiCo, based in Purchase, N.Y., is replacing the BVO in Gatorade with an ingredient called sucrose acetate isobutyrate, which Carter said will maintain the flavor and taste of the drinks.

Although Americans have been drinking less soda since 1998, sports drinks have remained a growth area for PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. Gatorade remains the dominant player with about 69 percent of the market, while Powerade has 30 percent, according to Beverage Digest.


Source AP

mother !!in' flame retardant in our drinks. [pic]

No wonder cancer, heart disease, etc are so prevalent in the baby boomer generations.

Microwaving your left over taco bell in a tupperware and washing it down with some flame retardant mountain dew [pic]

[pic] maybe im missing something about flame retardant? but have you ever made orange Koolaid..the !! doesnt even out completely. so thats why you put this in..i donno maybe im wrong but flame retardant

i had that taco bell and mountain dew baja blast last night lol

it's all good tho, you just stir that !! up real quick and you're good to go.

I was more commenting on all the bull!! they put in our food. You know that in Peter Pan Peanut Butter, there are ingredients that are more similar to plastic than actual food? You multiply that by all the different types of foods that have non-food ingredients. Then multiply that by everyone in the country. Then multiply that by eating that food over a lifetime, no wonder people are dropping like flies from all different kinds of illnesses.

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I stopped eating fast food and candy as well as stopped drinking soda in 2007. I have the occasional burger and fries or a pizza, but very rarely. This year I’ve stepped my game up and bought a juicer and have been on a juice diet, supplementing two of my 3 daily meals with juice recipes. I feel so much better and love my new diet.

And in the end most of the food we consume is tainted in some way. My belief is that the more “raw” and natural the food, the less chance you have of consuming a ton of “bad” stuff. I’m sure the fruits and veggies I’m juicing have bug spray and other pesticides, but they are not nearly as bad as the !! in fast food and soft drinks!

I've been trying to eat a lot cleaner too. No processed stuff, not a lot of sugar.

<--- that !! changed my life. If you can watch the documentary I would highly recommend it.

Also check this out for some recipies

Orange Gatorade after a night of alcohol and drugs is a beautiful thing. Guess its back to blue. And who cares if it evens out the flavor, can't you just shake it up?

!!in flame retardant???

You needed flame retardant after eating at Taco Bell they did you a favor

always wondered why Mountain Dew drinkers are the weirdest people on the planet.
flame retardent.
makes sense now.

people always thought i was weird for rocking my glass with a spoon in it. i give that !! a stir every now and then and sip, keeps it steady without the need for chemicals. this stuff is harmless though, if people lived consuming things like this 30 years ago we will be fine.

Hilarious a !! named Molly is the rep they choose to handle this [pic]

Yeah... How many old people have cancer. [pic]

wtf IS real out here [pic]

People do realize that products don't only have one use right? [pic]

Sheep. "Oh no, vegetable oil that can also be used as a flame retardant!"

At least learn what bromine is before you start whining and !!

Ha they keeping that Aspartme in though.. [pic]