In many cases when it comes to potentially dangerous products, companies will change their products as a result of public pressure without issuing a recall for that product. This tends to be a positive for a company over waiting for a recall and having to pull the product from store shelves; the company can claim to be aware of the issue while still asserting that its product is safe.

This is the scenario playing out around Gatorade, which is changing its formula to remove an ingredient used as a flavor emulsifier, which is meant to evenly distribute the flavor of the faux-fruit drink. The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, is a synthetic chemical that has uses as a flame retardant. Some research has suggested that BVO, as it is known, could be building up in tissues of people who consume it. Mice that have been exposed to large doses have experienced behavioral and reproductive abnormalities, researchers say.

A woman in Mississippi started an online petition that gathered about 200,000 signatures, asking Gatorade's parent company, PepsiCo, to remove the ingredient. A corporate spokeswoman, however, says that the company has been trying to figure out for several months how to remove the ingredient without affecting the drink's flavor and says the petition had nothing to do with the change.

The new ingredient that was selected, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, will be used going forward. However, because Gatorade insists that its product is safe, it will not be recalling existing products and thus will not make a big public rollout of the new formulation when it hits shelves and vending machines.

Source: Los Angeles Times, "Gatorade pulls ingredient linked to flame retardant," Tiffany Hsu, Jan. 25, 2013