While it's not exactly news that most sodas aren't great for your health, many of us are willing to accept the risks for the occasional sweet treat. But as it turns out, there are concerns beyond just high sugar content—and now officials are taking a stand. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to set a nationwide ban on brominated vegetable oil, a potentially toxic ingredient found in certain popular sodas.
RELATED: FDA Warns Common Soda Ingredient Is Toxic to Your Thyroid.
In a July 2 constituent update, the agency announced that it would be "revoking the regulation authorizing the use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in food."
BVO—which is a vegetable oil that is modified with the element bromine—has been used as a food ingredient since the 1920s, according to the FDA's website. The agency considered BVO to be generally recognized as safe (GRAS) until the late '60s, when concerns about its safety arose. Around that time, the ingredient was removed from the FDA's "GRAS list," and the agency has "continued to evaluate new information about the possible health effects of BVO as it became available."
Over the years, research has been released further calling into question the safety of BVO. But it was a study recently conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the once popular ingredient.
This research, which was conducted on rats and released in 2022, showed that BVO is potentially toxic to the thyroid.
"The data from the study suggest that oral exposure to BVO is associated with increased tissue levels of bromine and that at high levels of exposure the thyroid is a target organ of potential negative health effects in rodents," the FDA said on its website.
These results allowed the agency to conclude that "the intended use of BVO in food is no longer considered safe," according to the new update.
RELATED: New Laws Could Ban Gatorade, M&M's, Froot Loops, and More Popular Snacks.
The new BVO ban will officially go into effect on Aug. 2.
"The compliance date for this rule is one year after the effective date, to provide the opportunity for companies to reformulate, relabel, and deplete the inventory of BVO-containing products before the FDA begins enforcing the final rule," the agency explained.
But most companies have already removed the ingredient from their products after the FDA began regulating the food additive in 1970.
"Over the years, many beverage makers reformulated their products to replace BVO with an alternative ingredient, and today, few beverages in the U.S. contain BVO," Jim Jones, FDA's deputy commissioner for human foods, said in a Nov. 2023 statement.
There are still dozens of products that use BVO as ingredient, however, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit research group that has been working to get BVO and other toxic additives banned for years.
Most of the food items that still contain BVO are sodas. This list includes (but is not limited to) Sun Drop and some store-brand sodas from retailers like Walmart. A spokesperson for Walmart told Reuters that the company is aware of the new FDA ban and has been "working with private brand suppliers to reformulate products."
"Currently, there are very few Walmart private brands items that still contain BVO, and we expect them to be reformulated in advance of the FDA compliance date," the spokesperson shared.
Keurig Dr. Pepper, the company that owns Sun Drop, also told Reuters that it is actively working to reformulate the drink so that it no longer contains BVO.
"The FDA’s decision to ban brominated vegetable oil in food is a victory for public health," Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the EWG, said in a statement. "But it’s disgraceful that it took decades of regulatory inaction to protect consumers from this dangerous chemical."
