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Comment by scotty79 | Hacker News Reader

How can something that has contact with food be allowed to be secret?

The materials used don't have to be secret, often it's the way to manufacture that's kept secret.

It's similar with banknotes. The materials used is public knowledge (and parts of it patented), but manufacturing is a secret to avoid counterfeiting.

Materials used in manufacturing can contaminate the product.

The end result is testable

You can do generic tests like testing for toxicity, but that won't give you the full picture.

If you don't have a list of all the input raw materials, intermediates, by-products, impurities, surface materials that can leech into the final product, etc; you can't test for them.

That's true in the least helpful sense. We only know a subset of potential problems when it comes to food contamination and certainly don't test for all of even those. We naturally have no idea about the effects of yet undiscovered contaminants.

The drink itself is secret

Of course they are. (Coca cola tastes different in every country, and it is basically, sweetened water with no trace of coca)

The natural extract is the secret and always imported from the US, but the variations are in the water and also the sugar syrup used, it depends the location in the world (source: I visited a factory once)

You can go to World of Coca Cola in Atlanta and try them all. I'm told the Beverly is especially memorable.

It uses 100 metric tons of coca leaves each year:

https://www.naturalnews.com/032658_Coca-Cola_cocaine.html

It's not the only company doing that. In Italy you get a amazing liquor named 'Coca Buton' that imports and processes cocoa leafs to Italy.

As far as I know the only European company that is allowed to do that. And I swear that drink does still contain some alkaloid magic, even thought there obviously is no cocaine in it.

Probably just doing that so they can maintain their exclusive right to import it legally.

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