Coca Cola – Page 2 – Infinite Unknown

Venezuela bans Coke Zero, cites “dangers to health”

June 13, 2009 by Infinite

ECUADOR/

CARACAS, June 10 (Reuters) – The Venezuelan government of U.S.-critic President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered Coca-Cola Co to withdraw its Coke Zero beverage from the South American nation, citing unspecified dangers to health.

The decision follows a wave of nationalizations and increased scrutiny of businesses in South America’s top oil exporter.

Health Minister Jesus Mantilla said the zero-calorie Coke Zero should no longer be sold and stocks of the drink removed from store shelves.

“The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans,” the minister said in comments reported by the government’s news agency.

Despite Chavez’s anti-capitalist policies and rhetoric against consumerism, oil-exporting Venezuela remains one of Latin America’s most Americanized cultures, with U.S. fast-food chains, shopping malls and baseball all highly popular.

Mantilla did not say what health risks Coke Zero, which contains artificial sweeteners, posed to the population.

Red Bull Cola banned for containing cocaine

May 25, 2009 by Infinite

red-bull-cocaine

Authorities in the German states of Hesse and North-Rhine Westphalia have ordered retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola after they found traces of cocaine in the fizzy drink.

The consumer ministries in the two states confirmed on Friday they had ordered retailers to pull the drink off their shelves after a food safety institute in North-Rhine Westphalia found cocaine in samples of the beverage.

“The institute examined Red Bull Cola in an elaborate chemical process and found traces of cocaine,” Bernhard Kühnle, head of the food safety department at the federal ministry for consumer protection said.

Authorities said the cocaine levels do not pose a health threat but are not permitted in foodstuffs.

The Frankfurter Neuen Presse reported that the investigation was prompted by the use of a de-cocainized extract of coca leaf in the drink. That means the drink cannot be classified as a foodstuff but as a narcotic and needs a special license, authorities said.

Virtually free water supply for corporations vs. water shortages for residents

March 11, 2009 by Infinite

Public spigot stays open for water bottlers

You probably thought there was a serious water shortage in Florida.

It’s why we’re spending billions to repair and repurify the Everglades, right? It’s why we’re not supposed to run our lawn sprinklers more than once or twice a week.

But hold on. It turns out there’s a boundless, virtually free supply of Florida water — though not for residents. The public spigot remains open day and night for Nestle, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and 19 other corporations that bottle our water and sell it for a huge per-unit profit.

The stuff is no safer or tastier than most municipal tap water, but lots of us buy it, anyway. You know all the brands: Deer Park, Dasani, Zephyrhills, Aquafina, even Publix.

Common sense would suggest that a company with a balance sheet like Coca-Cola’s or Pepsi’s ought to pay for the water they take, the same as homeowners and small businesses do.

Nope. Every year, state water managers allow large bottling firms to siphon nearly two billion gallons from fresh springs and aquifers. The fees are laughably puny.

For example, it cost Nestle Waters of North America the grand sum of $150 for a permit to remove as much water as it pleases from the Blue Springs in Madison County. Every day, Nestle pipes about 500,000 gallons, enough to fill 102,000 plastic bottles that are then shipped to stores and supermarkets throughout the Southeast.

Orange drinks with 300 times more pesticide than tap water

January 5, 2009 by Infinite

Fanta
The study uncovered pesticides in some fizzy drinks at up to 300 times the level permitted in tap water

Fizzy drinks sold by Coca-Cola in Britain have been found to contain pesticides at up to 300 times the level allowed in tap or bottled water.

A worldwide study found pesticide levels in orange and lemon drinks sold under the Fanta brand, which is popular with children, were at their highest in the UK.

The research team called on the Government, the industry and the company to act to remove the chemicals and called for new safety standards to regulate the soft drinks market.

The industry denies children are at risk and insists that the levels found by researchers based at the University of Jaen in southern Spain are not harmful.

The researchers tested 102 cans and bottles of soft drinks, bought from 15 countries, for the presence of 100 pesticides. The UK products were bought in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and at Gatwick Airport.

The experts said the levels found were low under the maximum residue levels allowed for fruit, but they were ‘very high’ and ‘up to 300 times’ the figure permitted for bottled or tap water.

PepsiCo Pursues Ancient Leaf as Cola ‘Breakthrough’

December 1, 2008 by Infinite

One healthy plant (Stevia) in there does not make ‘junk’ healthy. Stevia is not allowed in foodstuffs and remedies in the EU. I think this is because of the sugar industry in Europe.
___________________________________________________________________________

Men harvest the stevia plant in Ybycubua, Paraguay, on Sept. 9, 2008. Photographer: Carlos Bittar/Bloomberg News

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — A leaf the Guarani Indians of Paraguay’s jungles used to sweeten drinks for centuries may help Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. revive flagging sales in the $320 billion-a-year global soft-drink industry.

The Food and Drug Administration is poised to act on allowing a zero-calorie sweetener derived from the stevia plant grown in Paraguay and China. Approval may allow the world’s two largest soda makers to reverse three years of U.S. soft-drink sales declines with beverages containing the natural extract, according to Mariann Montagne, an analyst at Minneapolis-based Thrivent Asset Management.

“They are really desperate for something to pick up colas,” said Montagne, whose firm owns Coca-Cola and PepsiCo among the $70 billion it oversees. “There is definitely a need, and people will respond if they have this natural sweetener.”

The two companies lost a quarter of their market value this year, falling about 8 percentage points more than the Standard & Poor’s 500 Consumer Staples Index, as the world economy slowed. Massimo D’Amore, chief of PepsiCo’s beverage division, said Nov. 20 the company will use a compound made from stevia as an alternative to higher-calorie or artificial sweeteners in some drinks as soon as the government gives “the green light.”

U.S. Stocks Drop Most Since Crash of 1987 on Recession Concerns

October 15, 2008 by Infinite

A trader looks up at monitor while working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Oct. 15, 2008. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg News

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks plunged the most since the crash of 1987, hammered by the biggest drop in retail sales in three years and growing doubt that plans to bail out banks will keep the economic slump from deepening.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. tumbled more than 12 percent as commodity prices declined on concern the slowing economy will hurt demand. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. retreated 8 percent after the Commerce Department said purchases at chain stores decreased 1.2 percent last month. Morgan Stanley lost 16 percent after Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney said the government’s bank rescue is not a “panacea” solution.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 90.17 points, or 9 percent, to 907.84, with nine companies declining more than 20 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 733.08, or 7.9 percent, to 8,577.91, its second-biggest point drop ever. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 150.68, or 8.5 percent, to 1,628.33. About 37 stocks fell for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wall Street Turns South

October 14, 2008 by Infinite

Most U.S. Stocks Fall as Earnings Concern Overshadows Bank Plan

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks fell a day after the market’s biggest rally since the 1930s as a worsening outlook for earnings forced investors to look beyond a $2 trillion global push to rescue banks.

PepsiCo lost as much as 14 percent, the most since October 1987, after lowering its profit forecast as customers cut back on snacks and soft drinks. Microsoft and Intel slid more than 5 percent as analysts said demand for computers is slowing. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. added more than 19 percent, sending banking shares to a third straight advance.

“Notwithstanding the government and Treasury’s actions focusing on financials, the general economic environment has deteriorated quite a bit in the last five or six weeks,” said Jonathan Armitage, head of U.S. large-cap equities at the American unit of Schroders, the U.K. manager of $259 billion. “You’re just seeing different parts of the equity market reacting to that.”

Coca-Cola to buy Huiyuan in largest China takeover

September 3, 2008 by Infinite

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co (KO.N), the world’s largest soft drinks maker, offered to buy juice maker China Huiyuan (1886.HK) for a hefty premium, marking the biggest takeover in China by a foreign company.

The all-cash deal of $2.5 billion, which still requires regulatory approval, values Huiyuan at nearly three times its closing price on Friday.

Coca-Cola, which has offset flat sales at home by expanding globally, dominates a growing Chinese diluted-juice market and now hopes to make inroads into an untapped pure-juice sector.

Food additives ‘could be as damaging as lead in petrol’

April 9, 2008 by Infinite

Artificial food colours are set to be removed from hundreds of products after a team of university researchers warned they were doing as much damage to children’s brains as lead in petrol.

Academics at Southampton University, who carried out an official study into seven additives for the Food Standards Agency (FSA), said children’s intelligence was being significantly damaged by E-numbers. After receiving the advice last month, officials at the FSA have advised their directors to call for the food industry to remove six additives named in the study by the end of next year.