PepsiCo to remove controversial ingredient from Gatorade
Brominated vegeteable oil was patented as a flame retardant.
PepsiCo will remove brominated vegetable oil (BVO) from its Gatorade sports drinks in response to customer complaints. A petition on Change.org to remove the ingredient had received more than 200,000 signatures by Friday, Jan. 26, but PepsiCo spokesperson Molly Carter said the change was in the works for over a year and was unrelated to the petition. BVO was patented as a flame retardant and is banned in Japan and the EU. The ingredient acted as an emulsifier in Gatorade to keep flavor distributed evenly throughout the drink and was present only in some varieties such as orange and citrus cooler. The company plans to replace BVO with sucrose acetate isobutyrate.