Pepsi Products Still Contain Carcinogenic Caramel Coloring

Pepsi Outside California Still Has Chemical Linked to Cancer: Report

July 20, 2013 | 41,750 views

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By Dr. Mercola

In 1986, California passed a ballot initiative called Proposition 65, which required consumer products with potential cancer-causing ingredients to bear warning labels.

Rather than label their products sold in California as likely carcinogenic, most companies reformulated their product ingredients so as to avoid warning labels altogether, and most did this on a national scale, not just in California, to avoid carrying a separate inventory of products.

After it was revealed that a common additive known as “caramel coloring” on labels, or 4-methylimidazole (4-MI) scientifically, used in many sodas may cause cancer, soda bigwigs Coke and Pepsi announced that they would reformulate their caramel coloring in order to avoid adding a cancer warning label to their products in California.

But did they really?

Pepsi Products Outside of California Still Contain Carcinogenic Caramel Coloring

It’s been more than a year since Coke and Pepsi declared they would be reformulating their products to remove 4-MI in their caramel coloring.

This artificial brown color is made by reacting corn sugar with ammonia and sulfites under high pressures and at high temperatures. This produces the chemicals 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, which have been found to cause lung, liver and thyroid cancer in lab rats and mice.

However, when the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) tested samples of Coke and Pepsi products from California and other states for 4-MI, they found marked discrepancies in the Pepsi products:

“If you live in California, Coke and Pepsi products are made without 4-MI, a chemical known to cause cancer. But in testing of cola products from ten states, CEH found high levels of 4-MI in ALL Pepsi cola products, while 9 out of ten Coke products were found without 4-MI problems.”¹

Pepsi responded to CEH’s findings by stating they plan to remove the chemical for the rest of the US by February 2014 and are also planning to remove the chemical globally. Still, CEH’s executive director called Pepsi’s delay “inexplicable” and urged the company to “take swift action” to provide the same safer product that’s being sold in California to all Americans.²

It’s Not Unusual for Food Manufacturers to Use Toxic Chemicals in Markets Where They Can Get Away with It…

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