ALSOFOUNDINBVO (Brominated vegetable oil)
FDA Ban · 2024Banned in 2024 — after 50+ years in citrus sodas. Also listed on labels as Brominated vegetable oil, Brominated soybean oil.
E-number: —
What it is
Vegetable oil with bromine atoms bonded to it, making it heavy enough to stay suspended in soda instead of floating to the top. Its entire job was keeping citrus flavor oils evenly distributed — a purely cosmetic fix for a drink that would otherwise separate.
Why it's in food
Citrus oils float. BVO weighted them down so a bottle of orange soda looked the same on the last sip as the first. That's the whole case for it: not preservation, not safety, not nutrition. Appearance.
US vs EU status
United States
Banned. In July 2024 the FDA revoked its authorization outright, concluding BVO is no longer safe after studies showed bromine accumulating in body tissue and affecting the thyroid. The revealing part is the timeline: BVO lost its GRAS status back in 1970 and survived for 54 more years on 'interim' approval — a temporary permit that outlived the careers of everyone who issued it. California banned it in 2023; the FDA followed a year later.
European Union
Never permitted in the EU — no E number, no approval, no debate. Japan and India also barred it decades ago. For half a century, the same drink sold in Europe simply used a different suspension agent while the American version used brominated oil. Nobody in Brussels missed it.
Common products
- Historically: citrus sodas like older Mountain Dew and Sun Drop
- Some regional and store-brand citrus drinks
- A few sports drinks (long since reformulated)
- Should now be gone — the compliance deadline passed in August 2025
Cleaner swaps
- Sodas using glycerol ester of rosin or sucrose acetate isobutyrate — the standard replacements
- Citrus drinks with no suspension agent (shake gently)
- Sparkling water with real citrus
Case note
BVO lost its 'generally recognized as safe' status in 1970 and stayed in American soda until 2024 on a temporary permit nobody ever finished. Europe never allowed it at all. Fifty-four years of 'interim' is the single best argument for why this library exists — the question isn't what's banned, it's what's still pending.
FAQ
Why was BVO banned?
Bromine accumulates. Studies found it building up in body tissue over time and interfering with thyroid function — and the FDA's own 2022 rodent research confirmed thyroid effects, which is what finally triggered the 2024 revocation. Unusually for this board, the agency ran the study that convicted the additive it had permitted.
How was it legal for 54 years after losing GRAS status?
Because 'interim' has no expiration date. When BVO's GRAS status was pulled in 1970, the FDA placed it on interim approval pending further study — and then the study didn't come, and the interim held, through eleven presidencies. It's the most damning fact in the file: not that the system got it wrong, but that a temporary label can last longer than a career.
Is BVO still in anything on shelves?
It shouldn't be. Major brands including PepsiCo and Coca-Cola dropped it around 2014 under consumer pressure, a full decade before the ban, and the FDA's compliance deadline passed in August 2025. If you find 'brominated vegetable oil' on a label now, it's an outlier worth photographing.
Who forced the change — regulators or consumers?
Both, in that order of stubbornness. A teenager's petition in 2012 pushed Gatorade to reformulate, big soda followed by 2014, California banned it in 2023, and the FDA closed the file in 2024. By the time the ban arrived, the market had already left. That sequence repeats across this board more often than it should.
How the FDA decides what reaches your table and your medicine cabinet — and how it learned to decide.
Related files
Carrageenan Irish moss extract
Seaweed-derived. The gut-inflammation fight won't die.
Open file →Polysorbate 80 Tween 80
Keeps ice cream creamy. Microbiome studies keep raising flags.
Open file →CMC Carboxymethylcellulose
Thickens everything — now linked to gut-barrier questions.
Open file →Propylparaben Propyl p-hydroxybenzoate
A paraben in your pastry. The EU said no back in 2006.
Open file →