Coke and Pepsi change manufacturing process to avoid cancer warning

 

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are changing how they make an ingredient in their drinks to avoid being legally obliged to put a cancer warning label on the bottle.

The new recipe for caramel colouring in the drinks has less 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI) - a chemical which California has added to its list of carcinogens.

The change to the recipe has already been introduced in California but will be rolled out across the US.

Coca-Cola says there is no health risk to justify the change.

 

'No risk'

Spokeswoman Diana Garza-Ciarlante told the Associated Press news agency they wanted to ensure their products "would not be subject to the requirement of a scientifically unfounded warning.

The chemical has been linked to cancer in mice and rats, according to one study, but there is no evidence that it poses a health risk to humans, said the American Beverage Association, which represents the wider industry.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims a person would need to drink more than 1,000 cans of Coke or Pepsi a day to take in the same dose of the chemical that was given to the animals in the lab test.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo account for nearly 90% of the US fizzy drink market, according to one industry tracker, Beverage Digest.

The companies say changing their recipes across the whole of the US, not just in California, makes the drinks more efficient to manufacture.

In a statement Coca-Cola added that the manufacturing process across Europe would not change.

It said that apart from California "not one single regulatory agency around the world considers the exposure of the public to 4-MEI as present in caramels as an issue".

CLARIFICATION: This story was changed on 10 March to make it clear that it was a manufacturing process that had changed, not the recipe of the drinks themselves.

India reverses cotton export ban after farmers outrage

India has reversed a ban on cotton exports, less than a week after imposing it.

There was an angry reaction from farmers when the government announced the policy last Monday.

The government justified the ban by saying that India needed to protect supplies for its own cotton mills.

But farming groups were outraged and China, which is the world's biggest cotton buyer, said the ban was "irresponsible".

Trade Minister, Anand Sharma, announced Sunday's change, saying a formal order would be made on Monday.

Reacting to the news, Nayan Mirani, vice-president of the Cotton Association of India which represents exporters and traders, said: "We must realise that we are a cotton surplus country and our surplus needs to be exported. These are short-sighted views that [the textile] industry sometimes takes by asking to ban cotton exports."

India is the world's second biggest producer of cotton and its exporters had outstanding orders for 2.5m bales of cotton when the ban, which took immediate effect, was imposed.

Exports had been running well above government targets and, at the time, officials at the textile ministry said the ban was needed due to "the trend of domestic consumption and depletion of domestic availability".

Cotton prices jumped 5% on New York's commodity market after the ban was announced but fell back later in the week.

The reversal of the ban is the latest policy mishap for the government. Last December a major reform of the retail industry was abandoned due to public opposition.