Coca-Cola to phase out use of controversial additive after DNA damage claim

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http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/cocacola-to-phase-out-use-of-controversial-additive-after-dna-damage-claim-834021.htmlSoft-drink giant to do away with sodium benzoate 'where technically possible', in the wake of IoS story that highlighted the potential dangers

 

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

Sunday, 25 May 2008Coca-Cola, the world's biggest soft drinks company, is phasing out a

controversial additive that may cause hyperactivity and DNA damage. By

August, no cans of Diet Coke should contain the preservative sodium

benzoate.

 

Coca-Cola

wants to remove E211 (sodium benzoate) from other products where

possible. But the company said there were no satisfactory alternatives

yet for its high-acid drinks Fanta and Dr Pepper. The substance also

remains in rival drinks such as Irn-Bru, Pepsi Max and Lucozade.Sodium

benzoate occurs naturally in some fruits but is used in far higher

concentrations to stop fizzy drinks from going mouldy. In an Independent on Sunday

exclusive last May, Professor Peter Piper, a chemistry expert at

Sheffield University, warned that it could switch off cellular power in

yeast and might do similar damage in humans. He called for the Food

Standards Agency to fund research into the subject.Sodium

benzoate was also one of seven E-numbers found to worsen hyperactivity

in a study by Southampton University. If combined with vitamin A,

sodium benzoate can form a potentially carcinogenic substance, benzene.Coca-Cola

said it had removed sodium benzoate from Diet Coke production in

January. The company said: "We are looking to phase out the use of

sodium benzoate where technically possible." It said that it had not

carried out any research into the preservative.In response to

our story, the Food Standards Agency referred Professor Piper's

concerns to the Committee on Mutagenicity. In a newly published

opinion, the committee dismissed calls for further research into

Professor Piper's findings.It pointed to studies on rodents that

showed no harm from sodium benzoate and said that human cells were

stronger than yeast cells.Professor Piper rebuffed the

statement, saying the rodent tests had been done decades before more

sophisticated DNA testing was developed, and suggested that the

committee lacked expertise in the area. "I regard that statement as a

whitewash," he said.Last month, the FSA demanded a ban on the

six food colours in the Southampton University study, but not on sodium

benzoate. It added that sodium benzoate was widely used in the soft

drinks industry."Obviously the soft drinks industry is very

powerful and they don't want to upset anyone there," said Professor

Piper. Coca-Cola contacted him to discuss his research after the IoS

published its story last year.What happened to the plutonium shipment?Plutonium

suitable for nuclear bombs was secretly shipped last week from the

controversial Sellafield nuclear complex to France on board an old,

unarmed ro-ro ferry.The shipment – originally due to take place in March, but postponed after an outcry following its disclosure in The Independent on Sunday – is the first of several due over the next few years. The

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which owns Sellafield, said that the

ship left British shores at 11pm last Saturday night, and arrived in

France at 2am on Wednesday carrying "several hundred kilograms" of

plutonium dioxide powder. Terrorists, experts say, need only about 10kg

to make a bomb. Sellafield is paying a plutonium debt by providing the

material to a French competitor after the failure of its own £473m

plant. It is being held in Normandy before being sent 435 miles by road

to be used in fuel manufacture in the south of France.Geoffrey Lean