Coke and Pepsi alter recipe to avoid cancer warning"

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are
changing the recipes for
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"..