Venezuela Orders End to Coca-Cola Zero Production
Mérida, June 12th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - On Wednesday the Venezuelan Ministry for Health ordered the Coca-Cola Company to remove its product Coca-Cola Zero from sale for containing a cancerous ingredient, sodium cyclamate, an ingredient not included in the US version of the drink.
Jesus Mantilla, the health minister, said, "The product should stop circulating in order to protect the health of Venezuelans." He said the product contains sodium cyclamate, which in large amounts can be harmful, and then announced that the product should be recalled, destroyed, and not produced anymore.
Divis Antunez, director of sanitary control for the Health Ministry, said the ingredient wasn't in the company's application that it made in 2007 and that was approved by the Ministry. Later, in a random test conducted by the National Institute for Hygiene Rafael Rangel, sodium cyclamate was found and the Health Ministry started a legal process for non-compliance with the Health Registry.
Antunez said that the recommended amount of sodium cyclamate for human consumption is 11 mg per kilo, whereas the new Coca-Cola Zero has 18-22mg per 10 mils, exceeding the amount approved by the Venezuelan Commission of Industrial Norms (COVENIN).
Yesterday Coca-Cola said in a press release, "The Coca-Cola Company and its bottler Coca-Cola Femsa Venezuela responsibly declare that Coca-Cola Zero doesn't contain any ingredient that could be harmful to the health." However, Coca-Cola said that until the government concludes its administrative proceedings it will suspend production in Venezuela and recall the drink.
Coca-Cola Zero is a drink without any calories (or an amount small enough to be rounded down to zero) and is marketed to young males who are self conscious of their weight but see Diet Coke as being for women. The diet and zero versions in the US, England, and Canada both contain non-calorie sweeteners aspartame (E951) and acesulfame K (E950), but in slightly different proportions and they therefore have slightly different tastes.
However the versions produced in Venezuela (as well as in Chile and some other Central American countries) have sodium cyclamate (E952) in larger proportions than aspartame. Whilst aspartame is cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), sodium cyclamate has been prohibited since 1969 when it was proved to cause cancerous tumours and congenital malformations.
Sodium cyclamate, when combined with other chemicals, has the capacity to sweeten up to 600 times more than sugar. According to Aporrea.org, it is also much cheaper than aspartame at $10/kilo compared to $152/kilo for aspartame.
In Mexico in August 2007, El Universal-Mexico reported that Coca-Cola was also putting sodium cyclamate in the coca-cola zero drink there. The article said that the drink contained 25mg of the ingredient for every 100g in a can of 355ml. Pro-U.S president Vicente Fox authorized the ingredient for the government's list of permitted food additives in July 2006.
In February 2008 Mexican feminist news Cimanoticias reported that consumers had "triumphed" and that the ingredient had been removed from the drink.
This is no accident of
This is no accident of course, just another of the thousands of attack methods employed by the Imperium. It should be treated as a criminal matter with those responsible thrown in jail for what amounts to attempted murder in the first degree.
Coca-cola disputes the allegation
Coca-Cola Co. disputes that, saying the product sold in Venezuela uses different artificial sweeteners, Acesulfame-K and Aspartame, just as in the north.
If allegations true, worst being left off ingredient list
I understand that there's now genuine scientific disagreement with original studies of the carcinogenic nature of sodium cyclamate, but if the government's lab tests are correct, it would match Coca Cola's use of the sweetener throughout Latin America.
And if that is the case, IF the government's lab tests are accurate AND Coca Cola failed to list the sodium cyclamate on its ingredients list, it's far more callous than just deciding to openly try and market a cyclamate-sweetened product, because the former would be pretty much saying that Venezuelan consumers aren't even significant enough to know what their food and drink products contained.
aspartame is the real killer
google it out - banned in some countries like Sweden - not yet in Europe due to strong lobby.
Europe has banned some 400 chemicals that are legal in US in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, shampoos, cleaners, etc.
Ever wondered why the US has the world's highest cancer rate, highest diabetes rate, highest heart disease rate, highest everthing rate that generates a constant supply of customers for the disease management industry? www.infoholix.net
aspartame
Aspartame should be banned too. It too is a cancerous ingredient.
Carbonated-beverage (ie,
Carbonated-beverage (ie, soft-drink) consumption in New Zealand has increased by about 45% in the last five years4 and we are now the 11th highest consumers per capita worldwide. An unsubstantiated local report suggested that up to 20% of some children’s energy intake is derived from soft drinks5 but there are no published national data on consumption levels in children. The recently completed National Nutrition Survey in Children will provide us with better information later in the year. However, it is known that males aged 15 to 24 years are the highest adult consumers of soft drinks in New Zealand.1 Non-alcoholic beverages (including fruit juice, coffee, tea) provide this subgroup of the population with about 260 kcal a day, about 10% of their daily energy intake and about 20% of their daily carbohydrate intake.1 Well over half these calories are believed to come from soft drinks alone.
Diet Coke is sweetened with
Diet Coke is sweetened with aspartame, but Coke Zero is sweetened with sucralose, also known as Splenda. Splenda causes gastric distress in some people who use it. My guess would be that that's the ingredient they're objecting to.
I don't understand why the
I don't understand why the quantities and amounts vary from country to country. It seems to me like Coke should hold to the same standards no matter where their product is distributed.