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Brominated Vegetable Oil

proXimityproXimity Registered User regular
edited November 2009 in Help / Advice Forum
So I was reading an article here and it mentioned Brominated Vegetable Oil, a substance so bad for you that it's banned in over 100 countries!

Being the curious guy I am, I went to look up why it's so bad for you. Surprisingly, the wikipedia page has India as the only country that it's actually banned from.

Looking all over, I keep seeing sites spouting off that it's banned in over 100 countries, yet none of them back that up, and have no reference to any list of countries it's banned it.

So... where exactly, besides India, is BVO actually banned?

Also, might it be that bromine in food is banned, and by that extent, BVO?

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Posts

  • JebusUDJebusUD Adventure! Candy IslandRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Maybe the have that confused with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil?

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  • MidshipmanMidshipman Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    From what I can recall hearing from my father (retired pharmaceutical developer and organic chemist) is that brominated vegetable oil is very hard on your liver. Apparently it was grandfathered in by the FDA in an act of spinelessness.

    Other things like alcohol are also hard on your liver, but actually provide some other effect beyond "making your drink cloudy as-if it had fresh citrus juice in it".

    Sort of a tangent, but he also has a very low opinion of Tylenol because it is similarly destructive to your liver.

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  • Dunadan019Dunadan019 Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1999/jul/29/what-brominated-vegetable-oil-and-why-do-soda-comp/

    explains why brominated vegetable oil is needed.

    my guess is, you would need to look into a list of softdrinks banned in other countries to even get a feeling of where that 100 number comes from.

    specifically mountain dew.

    Dunadan019 on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    proXimity wrote: »
    Also, might it be that bromine in food is banned, and by that extent, BVO?

    That would be the most believable explanation.

    Are there even 100 nations that have functioning effective regulatory bodies for food?

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  • LaterationLateration Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    proXimity wrote: »
    Also, might it be that bromine in food is banned, and by that extent, BVO?

    The closest thing I've found comes from the Bromine wiki page, but it isn't even in the same ballpark as 'banned in over 100 countries':
    Bromine is also used in the production of brominated vegetable oil, which is used as an emulsifier in many citrus-flavored soft drinks (e.g. Mountain Dew). After the introduction in the 1940s the compound was extensively used until the UK and the US limited its use in the mid 1970s and alternative emulsifiers were developed.


    I haven't found any evidence, despite the San Diego Reader's implied claim, that the WHO ever suggested BVO be banned or limited. In fact, the only response to BVO by the WHO I could find was in 1970, and that could be summarized as "we need some more long-term studies."

    But strangely there don't seem to be any skeptics giving evidence to the contrary either. I would expect Pepsi to argue against a claim like this even if it were true, but they seem to be more focused on arguing the much less defensible claim that BVO is not unhealthy for you.

    There is a related unsupported claim floating around out there that Mountain Dew was banned in the UK, but as far as I can tell the drink simply sold poorly because they reduced the amount of caffeine in it; it can still be ordered from some UK stores online. The Mountain Dew wiki page also makes the 'banned in over 100 countries' claim but it is again unsupported and unchallenged.

    The widespread distribution of soft drinks made with BVO might have provided some kind of evidence against this claim, except that many of these products (especially Fanta) are made with different ingredients in different countries. Nor is it clear that BVO is eliminated from the international versions specifically because of regulations, which would support the claim.


    Personally, I think this is a myth, although I am interested where this myth might have originated. However unhealthy BVO may be, until there's some reliable evidence to point to like a list of those countries that have banned BVO complete with citations I think you're justified in assuming it's only banned in India.

    Lateration on
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