Coca-Cola denies rumours it contains alcohol

US radio programme claims that Coke contains alcohol are 'just not the real thing', the company says.

Coca-Cola denies rumours it contains alcohol.

It has been one of the most guarded commercial secrets for more than a century, but a US radio station reckons it may have uncovered the ingredients that make Coca-Cola the real thing.
And one of those ingredients, according to the Chicago-based public radio programme This American Life, is alcohol.
Officials in the UAE dismissed the suggestion yesterday, saying that rumours had been around a long time and had been proved false by scientific analysis.
The crucial ingredient of Coke has been a mixture known only as "7X". John Pemberton, a medicinal chemist who devised the formula in 1886, refused to divulge the make-up of 7X and the recipe is locked in a bank vault in Atlanta. Only two senior Coca-Cola employees know the ingredients at any one time.
But, according to the radio programme, a colleague of Pemberton's did write down the formula and a photograph of his notes was published, without fanfare, on page 28 of the Atlanta Constitution-Journal 32 years ago.
According to this recipe, 7X, described on a can of Coke as "natural flavourings including caffeine", consist of alcohol and the oils of orange, lemon, nutmeg, coriander and neroli (produced from Bitter Orange blossoms).
Mark Pendergrast, who has written a history of the drink, told the popular radio show: "I think that it certainly is a version of the formula. The company has always said that at any given time only two people know how to mix the 7X flavouring ingredient. Those two people never travel on the same plane in case it crashes."
However, Khalid Mohammed Shareef, the director of the food control department at Dubai Municipality, rejected the possibility of alcohol in Coke.
"We've got good connections with all the labs all over the world, and we couldn't find any single thing to show us there is alcohol," he said. "I am 100 per cent sure because we did all the tests."
Coca-Cola has fought a string of legal challenges to force it to reveal its formula and, in 1977, it pulled out of India rather than divulge the contents. The only comments it has made in recent years on the secret recipe have been to confirm the drink originally included cocaine, which was removed in the early 1900s.
Last night, Coca-Cola confirmed all its soft drink products were non-alcoholic beverages and did not contain any meat.
"The ingredients used in our beverages are listed on the product labels and many third parties have tried over time to crack the secret formula of Coca-Cola," a spokeswoman said. "Try as they might to crack that formula, there truly is only one 'real thing'."
Coca-Cola will celebrate its 125th anniversary this year.
[e-mail]
[e-mail]