Is brominated vegetable oil safe?īrominated vegetable oil has been controversial for years, and questions have continued about the general safety of the additive.Īmerican Beverage Association spokesperson Danielle Smotkin said in a statement that BVO is 'safe, permitted by the FDA, and when used is listed as an ingredient.'īut some scientists have recommended more study of the ingredient over the past decade. 'Apart from the fact that both contain bromine, there is no direct connection between brominated vegetable oil and brominated flame retardants,' the statement said. Responding to articles comparing BVO to flame retardants, the Bromine Science and Environmental Forum - an industry group that represents companies that produce brominated flame retardants - issued a statement that said its member companies 'have never marketed BVO as a flame retardant.' 'People (are) just hearing the word 'brominated' and thinking all the negative connotations the word bromine brings with it,' he said. Equating the two would be like comparing Splenda, a sweetener, with bleach, since both contain the element chlorine. McGorrin said the common brominated flame retardants in use have different chemical makeups than BVO. 'To lump all brominated flame retardants as one single entity about how it may interact with humans and the environment is not accurate,' he said. The common brominated flame retardants in use are different from the food additive, he said. But the fact that it's patented doesn't mean it's in common use, or related to the vast majority of other brominated flame retardants. Is brominated vegetable oil really a flame retardant?įor years, BVO has drawn a comparison to brominated flame retardants, leading to claims like the one mentioned in the post that there is 'flame retardant' in Mountain Dew.īut the reality is more nuanced, said Christopher Reddy, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has studied brominated flame retardants and other brominated compounds.īVO could be used - and has been patented as - a flame retardant, he said. Nutrition facts posted on PepsiCo's product information website no longer include brominated vegetable oil as an ingredient. PepsiCo did not respond to a request for comment on when and why it removed the ingredient from the soft drink. Her campaign started when she began asking PepsiCo to remove BVO from its Gatorade products.ĭespite the 2014 announcement by both companies, reports from as recently as last year showed the ingredient remained in Mountain Dew.īut that ingredient has recently been removed. The announcement came as public pressure to remove the additive mounted, partially due to a campaign begun in 2012 by Mississippi teenager Sarah Kavanagh. In 2014, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo announced that they would remove brominated vegetable oil from their soft drinks. McGorrin said most beverages that contain BVO use it in much smaller amounts, such as 8 parts per million. The FDA's position since 1977 is that BVO can be used safely 'on an interim basis,' provided it is used in amounts of under 15 parts per million. The product originally carried the 'generally recognized as safe' designation from the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S., but that designation was removed in the 1970s. 'Instead of them kind of coalescing and ringing at the top - forming a film at the top of the soda - they're uniformly dispersed throughout,' he said.īut the additive is banned in some countries due to concerns about possible health risks when it's ingested in large amounts. Robert McGorrin, professor of food science and technology at Oregon State University, said BVO works as an emulsifier, particularly in beverages that use citrus oils, to keep the citrus oils from floating to the top of the drink.

Mountain dew nutrition facts