DailyDirt: I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Jun 15th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The Cola Wars have been over for a long time. As usual in war, there are no real winners -- just a lot of wasted spending. Now that we're giving peace a chance, here are just a few lingering concerns over these dark-colored soft drinks.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are going to modify their recipes a little bit to reduce the amount of caramel coloring and 4-methylimidazole in their colas. Otherwise, a California law would require a cancer warning label since the 4-methylimidazole in the coloring is a known carcinogen. [url]
There was a fairly complex conspiracy theory behind the introduction of New Coke which suggested that Coca-Cola knew how badly the new formulation would taste to consumers, but that the company made it in order to replace sugar with HFCS. Bonus points for definitively debunking this conspiracy theory... [url]
If you've ever seen a demonstration of a can of cola dissolving teeth, you might be a bit freaked out by the phosphoric acid listed in the ingredients of many sodas. But the dose makes the poison, and the concentration of phosphoric acid in soft drinks shouldn't worry anyone. [url]
To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: cancer, caramel, coke, cola wars, formulation, phosphoric acid, poison, soda, teeth
Companies: coca-cola, pepsi

7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2012 @ 5:04pm

cancerous caramel colouring?
how many candy bars will have to get a new warning label?
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2012 @ 11:40am

HFCS was introduced by Coke in 1975 - ten years before New coke.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2012 @ 11:42am
  
  Re:
  Because of US laws raising the price of sugar which are still in place to protect domestic corn industry.
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  - Michael Ho (profile), 17 Jun 2012 @ 11:43pm
    
    Re: Re:
    [citation needed]
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Chris Hoeschen (profile), 18 Jun 2012 @ 8:58am

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola

Since 1980 in the U.S., Coke has been made with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as an ingredient. Originally it was used in combination with more expensive cane-sugar, but by late 1984 the formulation was sweetened entirely with HFCS.
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- Michael Ho (profile), 18 Jun 2012 @ 1:58pm
  
  Re:
  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/coca-cola-moves-secret-formula/
  
  except Coca-cola claims that its formula remained the same for 125 years... until new Coke. not sure when they admit to using HFCS?
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Lennart Regebro, 21 Jun 2012 @ 3:10am

You can't debunk conspiracy theories.

Or rather, you can, as has been done with this one many times, but the conspiracists will ignore you.
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