Gatorade to remove flame retardant from sports drink

When 206,641 people sign an online petition, sometimes even a multinational giant like PepsiCo Inc. has to listen.

Sarah Kavanagh, a Mississippi teen, posted the petition in question on Change.org. She noticed Gatorade contains an ingredient banned in Japan and the European Union:

The other day, I Googled "brominated vegetable oil." It was the last time I drank Orange Gatorade. I found out that this "BVO" is a controversial flame retardant chemical that is in some Gatorade drinks! Who wants to drink that? Not me!

Well, PepsiCo is now reportedly planning to swap out brominated vegetable oil for another emulsifier, the equally scary-sounding sucrose acetate isobutyrate. No, that decision has nothing to do with the petition, PepsiCo says.

AP reports that Coca-Cola's Fanta and PepsiCo's Mountain Dew also contain BVO.