14 DAY TRIAL // Following an online petition started by a teenage girl from Mississippi, PepsiCo was left with no choice except agree to ditch a highly controversial ingredient from its Gatorade sports drink.
As previously reported, the so-called disgusting ingredient which made headlines only a few weeks ago is known as brominated vegetable oil.
For those who missed the news concerning Sarah Kavanagh's petition and its taking the online community by storm, it must be said that this particular chemical compound presently finds itself listed as a flame retardant.
Therefore, one need not be all that surprised that many wished to see it removed from the sports drink.
Despite their agreeing to stop using brominated vegetable oil when manufacturing Gatorade, PepsiCo wished to emphasize the fact that their decision has very little to do with Sarah Kavanagh's petition, and everything to do with the thousands of other customers who complained about the company's Gatorade recipe.
Furthermore, PepsiCo drew attention to the fact that their removing said flame retardant from the sports drink must not be interpreted as a more or less subtle way of owning up to the fact that brominated vegetable oil constitutes a threat to public health, Consumerist reports.
Thus, they insisted on making it quite clear that, as far as the company was concerned, their using brominated vegetable oil when manufacturing Gatorade was nothing if not safe.
Needless to say, Sarah Kavanagh is quite pleased that all her efforts have finally paid off, and that those who take pleasure in indulging in a can of Gatorade every once in a while will no longer have to worry about their also ingesting chemical compounds which have no business either in a sports drink, or in any other type of drink for that matter.
"When I went to Change.org to start my petition, I thought it might get a lot of support because no one wants to gulp down flame retardant, especially from a drink they associate with being healthy."
"But with Gatorade being as big as they are, sometimes it was hard to know if we’d ever win. This is so, so awesome," Sarah commented with respect to PepsiCo's announcement.