(RepublicanJournal.org) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the duty to protect the American public from products that could potentially cause injury or death. It regularly publishes recall information to keep consumers educated about the dangers of consumables and medical devices. It recently updated the classification of a recall of soft drinks containing undeclared ingredients.
The Charles Boggini Company provides soft drink concentrates and flavoring directly to retailers and manufacturers in bulk. In March, it voluntarily recalled four of its drink products: yellow lemonade, yellow lemonade X, pink lemonade, and cola flavoring base. The company said its label didn’t declare food dye ingredients, specifically Red 40 and Yellow 5 food dyes and sulfites.
Both of these food dyes contain benzidine, which is an animal and human carcinogen that’s permitted in low doses. However, because of the risk associated, companies must declare it on the product label. The FDA requires manufacturers to declare sulfites because of the sensitivities and health effects some experience if they consume the salts, including allergic reactions, or asthma attacks. The recall affected 2,723 gallons of the cola base, 28 gallons of pink lemonade, and 112 gallons of the yellow lemonade drinks.
On June 3, the FDA updated its classification of the products. The three classifications, I, II, and III, are indicative of the potential risk to consumers. Class I is the most severe, placed on products that could likely cause “serious adverse health consequences or death.” Class II is assigned when the agency believes “a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences,” or for the remote possibility of injury. Then, Class III is the least severe, and only assigned to products that are “not likely to cause adverse health consequences.”
Both of the yellow lemonades received the Class III designation, while the cola base and pink lemonade were placed into Class II.
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