PepsiCo will soon stop including an
ingredient called brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, in their product Gatorade.
BVO can be used as an emulsifier, helping to spread a solute or flavoring throughout
the drink. However, other uses of BVO include flame retardation, and the
chemical has been “banned in Japan and the European Union”. PepsiCo uses it in
Mountain Dew as well as Gatorade, and Coca-Cola uses it in Fanta.
PepsiCo says that the change was a response to concerns from the public. Although the company didn't give out any specifics, there was a recent petition on Change.org that urged soft drink companies, specifically Gatorade, to stop using brominated vegetable oil. The December petition accrued more than 200,000 supporters. Now that that petition succeeded, another has sprung up to convince Gatorade's competitor Powerade to stop using BVO.
"Gatorade to Remove Controversial
Ingredient." Wall Street Journal (2013): n. pag. 6 Jan.
2013. Web.
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