Indian officials order Coca-Cola plant to close for using too much water

Posted by Unknown on Saturday, June 21, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

Authorities in northern India have ordered the closure of a Coca-Cola bottling plant at the centre of protests that it is extracting too much groundwater, an official said Wednesday.
An anti-pollution official said the Mehdiganj plant in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh had breached the conditions of its operating licence, prompting the order closure earler this month.
"The plant is closed following our orders," Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board member secretary J.S. Yadav told AFP.
"They have also been asked to take suitable measures to recharge the depleting groundwater level by twice the amount they have extracted.
"Also, the effluents released by the plant contain pollutants beyond the permissible limits."
The plant was also asked to produce a permission certificate from a government agency that regulates ground water use, Yadav said.
The company has appealed the closure order to India's environment court, the National Green Tribunal, he said.
Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft-drinks maker which has consistently denied the allegations, could not immediately be contacted for comment.
The Indian unit of the company hit a hurdle earlier this year when local authorities said they would demolish the plant, claiming it was built on village council land and was "illegal".
The authorities also imposed a 126,000 rupee ($2,000) fine on Hindustan Coca-Cola Company Private Limited, over the land issue.
India is one of Coke's fastest-growing markets thanks to an expanding middle class.
The bottling plant, one of 58 that Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has in India, has been at the centre of protests for years. Demonstrators accuse the company of creating major water shortages through excessive extraction of water and of polluting groundwater and soil.
Coke last year announced the completion of work to expand the Varanasi bottling facility which can produce 600 polyethylene terephthalate bottles a minute.

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Coca Cola says no BVO in Lankan products

Posted by Unknown on Thursday, May 8, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

Coca Cola in a statement said yesterday it does not use Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) in any of its products manufactured and sold in Sri Lanka.
Following is the full text of the statement:
Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) is used in some of our beverages available in some parts of the world, to improve the stability of our products, preventing certain ingredients from separating. All of our beverages, including those with BVO, are safe and always have been – and comply with all regulations in the countries where they are sold. The safety and quality of our products are our highest priority.
In the coming months, The Coca-Cola Company will be transitioning from the use of BVO to Sucrose Acetate Isobutyrate (SAIB) and/or glycerol ester of rosin (singly or in-combination). Glycerol ester of rosin is commonly found in chewing gum and beverages, and SAIB has been used in beverages for over 14 years. The global transition will be made across a variety of formulas from ready-to-drink to fountain machines and allows us to become consistent with the ingredients we use throughout the world. That said, we do not use BVO in any of our products manufactured and sold in Sri Lanka. In the United States, Powerade Fruit Punch and Powerade Strawberry Lemonade bottle varieties have already transitioned to the use of glycerol ester of rosin. We anticipate the transition will be complete for all of our beverages in the United States by the end of the year.

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Coca-Cola to remove controversial drinks ingredient

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

The world’s largest beverage-maker, Coca-Cola, plans to remove a controversial ingredient from some of its drinks brands by the end of this year, following an online petition.
Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, is found in Coca-Cola fruit and sports drinks such as Fanta and Powerade.
It will be replaced after concerns that an element of the additive is also found in flame retardants.
Rival Pepsi removed the chemical from its Gatorade sports drink last year.
A Pepsi spokesman said it also had wider plans to stop using BVO and had “been actively working to remove it from the rest of our product portfolio”.
The safety and quality of our products is our highest priority”
Josh Gold Coca-Cola spokesman
Pepsi uses the ingredient in its Mountain Dew and Amp Energy drinks.
‘Safe’
Coca-Cola spokesman Josh Gold stressed the move to remove BVO was not an issue of safety.
“All of our beverages, including those with BVO, are safe and always have been – and comply with all regulations in the countries where they are sold,” he said in a statement.
“The safety and quality of our products is our highest priority.”
BVO has been used as a stabiliser in fruit-flavoured drinks as it helps to prevent ingredients from separating.
The health concerns stem from the fact BVO contains bromide, which is found in brominated flame retardants.
According to medical researchers at the Mayo Clinic, excessive consumption of soft drinks containing BVO has been linked to negative health effects, including reports of memory loss and skin and nerve problems.
BVO was dropped from the US Food and Drug Administration’s “Generally Recognized as Safe” list of food ingredients in 1970.
However, drinks companies are allowed to use BVO at up to 15 parts per million.
In Japan and the European Union, the use of BVO as a food additive is not allowed.
Food activism
Coca-Cola said it would switch to using sucrose acetate isobutyrate or glycerol ester of rosin, which is commonly found in chewing gum.
The Atlanta-based company said two flavours of its Powerade sports drink – fruit punch and strawberry lemonade – have already replaced BVO with glycerol ester of rosin.
Coca-Cola’s decision to remove BVO from its drink reflects a growing move among companies to reconsider certain practices due to public pressure.
The campaign against the use of BVO was begun by Sarah Kavanagh, a teenager from Mississippi, who questioned why the ingredient was being used in drinks targeted at health-conscious athletes.
Thousands of people have since signed her online petition on Change.org to have BVO removed from drinks.
Following Monday’s announcement by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Ms Kavanagh was quoted as saying: “It’s really good to know that companies, especially big companies, are listening to consumers.”

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