Several of your favorite soft drinks may look or taste different after health authorities banned the use of a potentially harmful ingredient.
This week, the FDA banned the use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which has been linked to a number of health problems, after declaring it unsafe.
Starting August 2, brands will have one year to remove BVO from products, change recipes and liquidate any inventory still containing the ingredient.
BVO, used in small amounts to prevent flavors from separating and floating to the top, is primarily responsible for giving citrus sodas their bright colors and smooth texture.
While some experts told DailyMail.com that removing BVO from soft drinks should not affect their taste, they admitted it could change the appearance of the liquids.
And others argued that it could cause changes in taste and texture.
Brominated vegetable oil is used in several citrus beverages, including some Sun Drop sodas.
Kim Shapira, a registered dietitian at the The Kim Shapira Method In Los Angeles, he told DailyMail.com: ‘BVO is used to stabilise drinks.’
‘In other words, it directly affects the visual and textual appearance of the product. Without it, separations may occur, which can make the product appear cloudy or even uniform.’
He noted that while BVO “doesn’t affect the taste, nor does it have any taste,” removing it could make drinks “seem less favorable.”
However, Dr. Darin Detwiler, a former FDA and USDA advisor and food safety expert at Northeastern University, told DailyMail.com that “eliminating BVO will likely require adjustments by manufacturers that could alter the taste, texture and color of their products.”
He noted that some Mountain Dew fans noticed changes after PepsiCo removed BVO.
“Is it just me or does Mountain Dew Original not taste the same as it used to?” asks one Reddit user aware Last year it no longer has that citrus flavor that I remembered and now it tastes very sweet and bitter.
‘OG Mtn Dew will never taste the same.’
Sun Drop is the most famous example that still contains BVO in its various lemon, lime and sweet orange flavours.
However, the company said last year that it was working to reformulate its recipes.
BVO has also been found in Detroit-based Faygo’s Moon Mist soft drink, as well as Borden’s Pink Lemonade and Pineapple fruit drinks.
Del’s Lemonade and Dean’s Orange and Fruit Punch flavors also list BVO on their ingredient labels.
And several flavors of D&G soda, a national brand that distributes Jamaican-inspired drinks, contain BVO. These include Ginger Beer, Orange and Pineapple varieties.
BVO is not found in any other food or sweet.
In recent years, BVO has been removed from popular drinks like Mountain Dew and Gatorade, although it remains in other citrus brands.
BVO is an additive used to prevent citrus flavors from floating to the top or not being evenly distributed throughout the beverage.
It has been used since the 1920s, and between 1950 and 1960, the FDA considered BVO to be generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use.
However, the additive lost its GRAS status in the 1970s, and regulators have since monitored studies to determine whether it poses a risk to human health.
At the time, studies showed that animals fed BVO had adverse cardiac effects, although additional studies resolved those safety concerns.
Additionally, research has linked BVO to headaches, memory loss, impaired balance, and thyroid problems.
Exposure to the additive can also irritate the nose, throat, lungs, and mucous membranes inside the mouth, throat, stomach, and lungs.
The FDA said this week that it has determined that BVO is not safe for use following the results of studies it conducted in collaboration with the NIH.
PepsiCo stopped using BVO in all of its beverages in 2019, including Mountain Dew, Brisk, Gatorade and Starry.
As well as containing BVO, Sun Drop’s citrus flavour also contains Yellow 5, which has been banned in countries such as the UK because it contains benzidine, a human and animal carcinogen permitted in low doses.
According to the FDA, ingestion of free benzidine raises the risk of cancer to just below the threshold of “concern,” or one cancer per million people.
On a scale of one to ten, with 10 being the worst, consumer advocacy group Environmental Working Group (EWG) rates Sun Drop a 10 due to its use of BVO, Yellow 5, and the additive sodium benzoate.
“Given the potential health risks associated with BVO, consumers should be cautious with products containing this ingredient until the transition is complete,” said Dr. Detwiler.