Dive Brief:
- Coca-Cola announced it will stop using brominated vegetable oil in all its products across the globe, including Fresca and Fanta. The move follows Coke's decision late last week to pull BVO from its Powerade brand.
- Pepsi told the Associated Press it too is working to remove BVO from all its products. Pepsi announced last year that it would remove BVO from its Gatorade brand, but would keep the chemical in some blends of Mountain Dew and Amp. The Purchase, NY-based company now says it is seeking alternatives to BVO for all its brands.
- The controversial ingredient has been patented as a flame retardant and is banned in a number of countries. A petition on Change.org from a Mississippi teenager triggered a social media frenzy demanding an end to BVO use in drinks.
Dive Insight:
It's hard to come up with a way to describe how the move to ban BVO has progressed. It's like a snowballl rolling downhill in a cartoon, picking up speed and mass and becoming unstoppable. Two years ago, people would be hard-pressed to find anyone outside of a food lab who knew what it was. Now it's a symbol for all that's wrong with the American diet.
Thus is the power of the e-vangelists: Social-media-connected consumers who are changing the food and beverage industry.
