Update 1-13-12:
Coca-Cola Co. said Thursday it has been contacted by a “relatively small number” of consumers with questions about an unapproved fungicide the company reported finding in orange juice sold by it and competitors in the U.S.
Brazilian orange juice producers say the use of the fungicide carbendazim, which was discovered in some major U.S. orange juice brands, is widespread in Brazil, raising concerns that most deliveries to the U.S. could contain the substance. “The juice will definitely have carbendazim,” Christian Lohbauer, president of the Brazilian Association of Citrus Exporters, said earlier this week, referring to exports from the most recent crop.
Carbendazim isn’t approved for use in citrus in the U.S., but other countries allow certain levels of the substance in juice imports.
ReutersWorkers load a truck with crates of oranges on a farm in Limeira, Brazil, on Thursday.
Coca-Cola’s Simply Orange and Minute Maid, along with PepsiCo Inc.’s Tropicana, are the major U.S. brands currently made in part with Brazilian orange juice. The discovery of low levels of carbendazim in U.S. orange juice stocks has prompted U.S. federal authorities to begin screening juice on supermarket shelves and roiled prices of orange-juice futures.
Food and Drug Administration officials have vowed to pull juice with higher than trace elements of the potentially harmful fungicide, which is 80 parts per billion or higher. But consumer concern thus far seems muted.
representative of PepsiCo’s Tropicana unit said in an email late Thursday that the company is “testing every shipment of imported orange juice in our possession and all future shipments for this specific fungicide.”
The representative declined to comment on whether the company has found the fungicide in its Tropicana or Dole juice products, despite the fact that the Brazilian producers asserted that virtually all juice exported to the U.S. contains the substance. The representative said Tropicana is “safe,” that PepsiCo has a “food safety system designed to ensure the safety of our products,” and reiterated that the company will follow the FDA’s guidance.
Tropicana also said it is in the process of moving to use only Florida orange juice in its Tropicana Pure Premium juice. “This transition to production for Tropicana Pure Premium is well underway and will be completed by the end of the month,” the representative said in a statement.
Original Post 1-12-12:
I’ll credit my friend Dr. John Gordon for the phrase following the colon in this blog post title. Here’s the story from today’s Wall Street Journal:
Coca-Cola Co. said it found an unapproved fungicide in orange juice made by Coke and its competitors, and alerted federal regulators that some Brazilian growers had sprayed trees with the substance.
The beverage giant, which makes Simply Orange and Minute Maid, wouldn’t say which brands had shown the fungicide. Both brands contain juice from Brazil.
The Food and Drug Administration said Monday an unnamed juice company had detected low levels of the fungicide in “its and competitors currently marketed finished products.” Those products include some that were on store shelves, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Bloomberg NewsCoca-Cola, which makes Minute Maid, wouldn’t say which brands had shown the fungicide.
Coca-Cola’s disclosure came after the FDA gave more details about how it is testing to block or remove any potentially contaminated orange juice from the U.S. market.
The agency said it is testing orange juice sold in supermarkets for the potentially harmful fungicide. Concern that the fungicide could damp demand for orange juice sent futures prices for the commodity plunging on Wednesday. The Environmental Protection Agency said consumption of orange juice with the fungicide at the low levels that have been reported doesn’t raise safety concerns.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc., which makes Tropicana and Dole, combined held almost a two-thirds share of the U.S. orange-juice market in the past year, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
A spokesman for PepsiCo’s Tropicana declined to comment on whether the company has found the fungicide in its products but said, “we take this matter seriously and will follow the FDA’s guidance.”
I love Coke (Diet Coke now) and orange juice, but I don’t like fungi in my drinks, period. Let’s hope Coke does everything it can to remove the contaminated products from store shelves, and ensure that of its juice products are perfectly safe.
Aneil
Total Trust 