Brominated vegetable oil

Brominated vegetable oil has been used to help emulsify citrus-flavored beverages, especially soft drinks, preventing them from separating during distribution.

[1][2] Several countries have banned use of BVO in food and drink products because of the potential for adverse health effects in humans.

Careful control of the type of oil used allows bromination of it to produce BVO with a specific density of 1.33 g/mL, which is 33% greater than water (1 g/mL).

[3] In the United States, BVO was designated in 1958 as generally recognized as safe (GRAS),[2] but this was withdrawn by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1970.

[4] The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations imposed restrictions on the use of BVO as a food additive in the United States, limiting the concentration to 15 ppm,[5] the amount of free fatty acids to 2.5 percent, and the iodine value to 16.

[9] An online petition at Change.org asking PepsiCo to stop adding BVO to Gatorade and other products collected over 200,000 signatures by January 2013.

[24] In the EU, beverage companies commonly use glycerol ester of wood rosin or locust bean gum as an alternative to BVO.