When you think of banned drinks, your mind might go toward alcohol. For instance, there was the whole Four Loko controversy of the early 2000s that led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the heavily caffeinated malt liquor drink. But there is one equally controversial beverage that doesn’t contain a drop of alcohol. The American formulation of Mountain Dew was banned throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, India, and elsewhere.
The reason was some of the drink’s ingredients, with the main culprit being an additive called brominated vegetable oil (BVO). Beverage companies used this chemical as an emulsifier to help keep the citrus flavor in sodas from separating out. One of BVO’s ingredients is bromine, which, over protracted exposure, can cause neurological symptoms like headaches and memory loss, among other issues, according to the Mayo Clinic. The U.K. banned BVO in the 1970s and the EU did as well in 2008. But in the U.S., where it has been used as a food additive since the 1920s, it took much longer.
Mountain Dew’s controversial ingredients
Mountain Dew was invented in Tennessee in 1927 and it remains a beloved Appalachian soft drink. It grew from humble beginnings to become the fifth most popular soda in the U.S. For many years its formula included BVO, which the FDA considered safe to consume. But in 2014, under public pressure, PepsiCo announced it would be removing the additive, which by 2020 was gone from most of its products.
The FDA banned BVO as a food additive in 2024. The agency made its decision after it “concluded that the intended use of BVO in food is no longer considered safe after the results of studies conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found the potential for adverse health effects in humans” (per the FDA’s website). The NIH study involving rats found that BVO remained in the tissues and adversely affected the thyroid.
The changes to Mountain Dew’s U.S. formula still didn’t mean it became available across the globe. There are other ingredients in the American version that are banned by some countries. But Mountain Dew was — and is — available worldwide. PepsiCo has tweaked the beverage’s formula to adhere to the various countries’ food standards.
The American version of Mountain Dew is still banned in the U.K.
Across the U.K., in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, authorities have continued to seize illegally imported Mountain Dew. While BVO might not be present in the American version of Mountain Dew anymore, there are several other ingredients that are also banned in the U.K. Both calcium disodium EDTA and yellow No. 5, which helps give the drink its electric glow, are not allowed to be used in food there. The former is banned because in studies involving lab animals, according to the BBC, researchers found the additive negatively impacted reproductive and developmental health, and increased the risk of colon cancer.
As for the dye, it’s banned because of a potential link to hyperactivity in children. The U.K. version of Mountain Dew also contains regular sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. If you’re asking yourself why these ingredients are banned elsewhere but perfectly fine to consume in the U.S., one reason is in how the FDA works. “The U.S. typically demands proof that something is harmful,” Professor Erik Millstone of the University of Sussex told the BBC, “whereas here we are prepared to restrict compounds even if there yet isn’t solid proof.”
