Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

Gatorade to drop ingredient

NEW YORK (AP) -- PepsiCo Inc. is removing a controversial ingredient from its Gatorade sports drink after customer complaints.

A spokeswoman for the company, Molly Carter, said the move was in the works for the past year after the company began "hearing rumblings" from consumers.

She said it wasn't a response to a recent petition on Change.org by a Mississippi teenager, who noted the ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, has been patented as a flame retardant and is banned in Japan and the European Union.