Coca-Cola withdraws brominated vegetable oil from Powerade drinks
Coca-Cola is dropping a controversial ingredient from its Powerade sports drink, after a similar move by PepsiCo's Gatorade last year. The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil (BVO), had been the target of a petition by a Mississippi teenager, who questioned why it was being used in a drink marketed toward health-conscious athletes.
Coca-Cola is dropping a controversial ingredient from its Powerade sports drink, after a similar move by PepsiCo's Gatorade last year.
In response to customer feedback, PepsiCo said last year that it would drop the ingredient from Gatorade. At the time, Coca-Cola declined to say whether it would remove the ingredient from the two flavours of Powerade that contained it.
But this week, bottles of Powerade in fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavours being sold in the Detroit, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska, New York and Washington areas no longer listed the ingredient. Some bottles still list it, however, suggesting Coca-Cola may have started phasing it out recently.
A representative for the Atlanta-based company confirmed on Sunday that its Powerade brands were "BVO-free", but no details were immediately available on when the change would be complete or how the drinks were reformulated.
Powerade's website still lists BVO as an ingredient for its fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavours.
