Several of your favorite sodas could look or taste different after health officials outlawed 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 slew of health issues – after declaring it unsafe.
Starting August 2, brands will have one year to remove BVO from products, change recipes, and clear out any inventory that still contains the ingredient.
BVO, which is used in small amounts to prevent flavors from separating and floating to the top, mainly gives citrusy sodas their bright colors and smooth texture.
While some experts told DailyMail.com that stripping BVO out of soft drinks should not affect their flavor, they admitted it could change the appearance of the liquids.
And others argued that it could lead to taste and texture changes.
Brominated vegetable oil is used in several citrusy drinks, including some Sun Drop sodas
Kim Shapira, a registered dietitian at the Kim Shapira Method in Los Angeles, told DailyMail.com: ‘BVO is used to stabilize drinks.’
‘In other words, it directly impacts the way of product will look visually and textually. Without it, you might see separation, which can make the product appear cloudy or even.’
She noted that while BVO ‘does not affect the taste, nor does it have a taste,’ removing BVO could make drinks ‘appear less favorable.’
However, Dr Darin Detwiler, former FDA and USDA advisor and food safety expert at Northeastern University, told DailyMail.com that ‘the removal of BVO will likely necessitate adjustments by manufacturers that could alter the taste, texture, and color of their products.’
He pointed to some Mountain Dew fans noticing changes after PepsiCo removed BVO.
‘Is it me or Mountain Dew Original doesn’t taste as it used to,’ a Reddit user posted last year. ‘It does not have the citrusy taste that I used to remember and it now 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 several lemon, lime, and sweet orange flavors.
However, the company said last year it was working to reformulate its recipes.
BVO has also been found in Detroit-based brand Faygo’s Moon Mist soda, as well as Borden’s Pink Lemonade and Pineapple fruit drinks.
Orange and fruit punch flavors from Del’s Lemonade and Dean’s 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 the Ginger Beer, Orange, and Pineapple varieties.
BVO is not found in any other foods or candies.
In recent years, BVO has been removed from popular drinks like Mountain Dew and Gatorade, though it remains in other citrusy brands
BVO is an additive used to keep citrus flavors from floating to the top or not being evenly distributed throughout the beverage.
It has been used since the 1920s, and in the 1950s to 1960s, the FDA considered the use of BVO to be generally recognized as safe (GRAS).
However, the additive lost its GRAS status in the 1970s, with regulators monitoring studies since then to determine whether it poses a risk to human health.
At the time, studies showed that animals that were fed BVO had adverse heart effects, though additional studies resolved those safety concerns.
Additionally research has linked BVO to headaches, memory loss, impaired balance, and thyroid issues.
Exposure to the additive can also irritate the nose, throat, lungs and the mucous membranes inside the mouth, throat, stomach and lungs.
The FDA said this week that it determined BVO is unsafe for use after 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.
In addition to containing BVO, the citrus flavor of Sun Drop also contains yellow 5, which has been banned in countries like 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 cancer risk to just under the ‘concern’ threshold, or one cancer in 1 million people.
On a scale of one to 10, 10 being the worst, consumer watchdog Environmental Working Group (EWG) ranks Sun Drop at 10 due to its use of BVO, yellow 5, and the additive sodium benzoate.
‘Given the potential health risks associated with BVO, consumers may want to be cautious with products containing this ingredient until the transition is complete,’ Dr Detwiler said.
