In 2004, Coca-Cola, which had faced a contamination scare in Europe just five years earlier, was forced to withdraw its controversial Dasani brand of bottled water from the UK market on Friday. This action was taken after the company discovered that Dasani contained illegal levels of bromate, a potentially carcinogenic chemical. The embarrassing voluntary recall came just weeks after Dasani’s turbulent UK launch, during which Coca-Cola was criticized for using tap water instead of a natural spring as its source.
Dasani, which had been sold in the US since 1999, is essentially treated and bottled tap water. Coca-Cola had claimed to be able to improve the water’s purity through a process perfected by NASA, the US space agency, before adding “a perfect balance of minerals.” However, on Friday, Coca-Cola admitted that the much-vaunted manufacturing process had inadvertently introduced illegal levels of bromate, a chemical known to increase the risk of cancer through long-term exposure.
While the UK’s Food Standards Agency stated that there was no immediate risk to public health, the incident served as a painful reminder of a poorly handled 1999 health scare in France and Belgium that had become a public relations problem for Coca-Cola.
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