See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_formula
If you want to release a medical drug, you need to document - at molecular level - how the drug is built up.
In the Netherlands, where I live, people go to expensive supermarkets to buy ecologically sourced meat and vegetables because of a so called chain of trust that no weird ingredients and antibiotics (if meat) have been added to their food.
Can someone from the HN community tell me:
1) Why is Coca Cola allowed to sell their beverages (e.g. by the FDA) when there are "secret ingredients"?
2) Have any proper studies been done on the health effects of Coca Cola consumption (not just sugary carbonated drinks)? Do we know how large populations are affected?
I love America and I think Europe is backwards in many, many ways. This isn't one of those ways. I wish we had European-style food purity laws. The only way to guarantee your food hasn't been messed with or "adulterated" or "enriched" in some way is to skip the stores entirely and buy straight from a local farmer.
I can lead a regular if culinarily boring life if I simply avoid these ingredients. But anything can hide in this phrase "Natural Flavors."
The only way I can know if I am allergic to something is to try it, and even then there are threshold issues and changing ingredients. Just because something is made a certain way today, doesn't mean it will be tomorrow.
In 1985, Coca-Cola research showed people actually preferred the flavor of Pepsi, so they made a taste-tested Pepsi clone. It was launched as New Coke, and despite people preferring New Coke in blind taste tests, they still wanted to buy and drink Coca-Cola Classic. New Coke was a massive flop.
So even if Pepsi managed to make a perfect Coca-Cola recipe clone, they're missing the main ingredient - their brand.
Also their distribution network. There's plenty of stores that stock Coca-Cola products exclusively. Having the exclusive contract to supply McDonalds must help them a lot, for example.
That said - in Australia, Pepsi Max is actually #1 [1]. Coca Cola has had some problems in Australia with stores & supermarkets refusing to stock their products. (Dominos Australia recently dropped all Coca-Cola products & switched to Pepsi.) [2]
[1] https://asahi.com.au/brands/soft-drinks
[2] http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/drink/woolworths-deliv...
(a)(1) The term artificial flavor or artificial flavoring means any substance, the function of which is to impart flavor, which is not derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof. Artificial flavor includes the substances listed in 172.515(b) and 582.60 of this chapter except where these are derived from natural sources.
(3) The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors, include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in subpart A of part 582 of this chapter, and the substances listed in 172.510 of this chapter.
From here: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfr...
Wikipedia lists two brief excerpts here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavor#Regulations_on_natural_...
you can also mask flavourings that have a bad reputation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Company
Apparently the cocaine-free leaves are sold to Coca-Cola. while the cocaine is sold to Mallinckrodt (Pharma).
This seems pretty shady to me.. The most addicting and widely popular drink that will and has always been the biggest is also the only soda that has permission to put some kind of secret extract into their drinks..
I really wonder what quantity of this extract is in coca cola, and whether this is for taste, or for the psychological effect like caffeine.
I'm not trying to say there's coke in coca cola, but it think it's funny that while their brand has been marketed as 'Coca-Cola' for so long. Why do they still give kids a can in their hand that they are going to drink out of.. literally with the words COKE on it. Why do they still put on the can?
There used to be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola#Coca_%E2%80%93_cocai...
Also explains how the 'spent leaves' are now used.
> In the Netherlands, where I live[...] Why is Coca Cola allowed
> to sell their beverages (e.g. by the FDA) when there are "secret
> ingredients"
That's not true. The exact same thing applies to food products manufactured or sold in the EU. Food labels aren't required to exhaustively list everything that goes into the product, or to publicly document the process by which the product is made.
Edit: I know Coca-Cola is manufactured outside the US, but I don't know if it's from scratch. I have a friend who used to work at the Coca-Cola plant in Iceland, and all they did was mix sugar, water and some nondescript "goo" they got shipped from abroad and carbonated it. So what went into the "goo" wasn't local knowledge.
Indeed, there are no ingredients listed on wine either. It's not 100% grape juice. Various types of yeast and sulfur are added, and likely other ingredients.
Given that the whole world has pushed hard on anti-tobacco (rightfully so IMHO), and has shown beyond doubt that (known) additives are carcinogenic, I find it odd that Coca Cola is not more explicit about the exact composition of their drink.
That's exactly analogous to Coke. Basic nutritional information that doesn't cover trace chemicals or the brewing process.
The secret is making this product economically in enormous quantities. It is about providers, contracts, supply warrantees, dealing with those that bottle your concentrates, water supplies to mix your concentrates, and so on.
There are people that study illnesses data at least in Europe and USA, and there is a clear relationship between sugary carbonated drinks in general and lots of illnesses.
There is a clear relationship with diabetes an sugary drinks in particular.
In the past Coca Cola used Coca, and hence cocaine, but it does not anymore.
"Coke dropped cocaine from its recipe around 1900, but the secret formula still calls for a cocaine-free coca extract produced at a Stepan Co. factory in Maywood, N.J."
" Stepan buys about 100 metric tons of dried Peruvian coca leaves each year, said Marco Castillo, spokesman for Peru’s state-owned National Coca Co."
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/apr/19/20040419-09...
https://www.coca-cola.co.uk/faq/how-many-cans-of-coca-cola-a...
B: Probably not, because there is no hypothesis that the particular mix of known ingredients in Coca Cola should have adverse health effects separate from those in other sugary, carbonated (add caffeinated) drinks.
> Who decides what the library of safe ingredients are?
The FDA, as well as their counterparts in practically every single country in the world. This is not controversial.
Not exactly workable for foods. Any meat or plant contains every chemical that made up what it was made from, plus every contaminant.
Herbicides, insecticides, wax coatings, preservatives, genetic modifications, gamma/x-rays, DPAs from packaging.
Maybe it is all not harmful, and maybe it is...
My reasons for this:
* We have the right to know. * We cannot (and we do not, hence the organic label) trust our gov't to look out for us. They've succombed to food lobbies over and over. * It will scare people away from trashy foods, drinks and habits like cigarettes
I don't think many people smoke or eat fast food nowadays because they're unaware that it is unhealthy. You are attributing a great deal of rationality to human beings when we do all sorts of unhealthy things for a wide range of reasons.
I think we as humans are worth enough to know what goes in our drinks and in how much quantity. If not, then the company is not worth the trouble. I would encourage anyone to have the same heuristic.
Years later, Mandela became president and my conscience felt clear about buying their products.
I thought, "I remember why I stopped drinking coke, but I don't remember why I started in the first place." I couldn't think of a satisfying answer so never restarted.
I don't think I've had a coke product since. Soon after I stopped drinking any sodas, sweetened or not. I love delicious food, but nothing about soda connects with either deliciousness or food in my mind.
I never started drinking bottled water either, for its environmental damage.
Other than that there isn't much that is exciting in a glass of cola, the most unhealthy part next to the caffeine would be the sugar (and artificial sweeteners in 'light' products).
For example, people who choose to drink soda, alcohol, excess sugar, etc. could be grouped together.
I do think there are some insurance providers for vegans, but that may just be marketing.