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Ever notice how people wear breathing masks and other protective gear when handling pesticides? That’s because you do not want to get this stuff on ya or in ya. Trust us. This stuff is aimed to kill. So why, then, until just recently were soft drink makers putting it in their products? Ok, to be fair, they were using brominated vegetable oil. BVO is an emulsifier. In other words, it distributes all of those fake flavors so we don’t have to shake the bottle. But like the sign says, studies suggest BVO hinders brain development, reduces fertility, and could cause...

The world's largest beverage-maker, Coca-Cola, plans to remove a controversial ingredient from some of its US drinks brands by the end of this year, following an online petition.Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, is found in Coca-Cola fruit and sports drinks such as Fanta and Powerade.Rival Pepsi removed the chemical from its Gatorade sports drink last year.In Japan and the European Union, the use of BVO as a food additive is not allowed.Pepsi has a plan to remove the ingredient from its entire product portfolio.It uses BVO in its Mountain Dew and Amp Energy drinks sold in the US.BVO has been...

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, 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. The petition on Change.org noted that the ingredient is linked to a flame retardant and is not approved for use in Japan or the European Union. In response to customer feedback, PepsiCo said last year it would drop the ingredient from Gatorade. At the time, Coca-Cola declined to say whether...

PepsiCo Inc. is removing a controversial ingredient from its Gatorade sports drink in response to customer complaints. A spokeswoman for the company, Molly Carter, said Friday that the change was in the works for the past year after the company began “hearing rumblings” from consumers about the ingredient. … The petition on Change.org noted that the ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, has been patented as a flame retardant and is banned in Japan and the European Union. … For Gatorade, Carter said the ingredient is used as an “emulsifier,” meaning it distributes flavoring evenly so that it doesn’t collect at the...