Beverage ingredients can form carcinogen.(food wise)

You might have gulped when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in May 2006 that it found benzene, a potent carcinogen, in some samples of five beverages at levels far higher than the 5 parts per billion (ppb) that federal regulations allow in bottled or tap water. (There is currently no standard for benzene in soft drinks.)

Benzene can form in beverages containing benzoate salts (antimicrobials) and either vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or erythorbic acid, a related substance, if certain minerals are present. Heat or light during shipping or storage can increase the amount of benzene formed.

What's in stores. At press time, the five beverages--AquaCal strawberry-flavored water, Crush Pineapple soda, Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange drink, Giant Light Cranberry Juice Cocktail, and Safeway Select Diet Orange soda--had not been pulled from store shelves by the manufacturers or the FDA, says Laura Tarantino, director of the agency's office of food-additive safety. "The levels found do not pose an acute health hazard," she says. All five have been reformulated or are being changed to minimize their benzene content, the agency says. It will continue to monitor the market.

The FDA learned from the beverage industry itself in 1990 that benzene can form in soft drinks. Since then, monitoring has occasionally turned up high levels, but the agency has never set a limit. "We haven't seen a need," says Judy Kidwell, an FDA consumer-safety officer. She added that the highest exposure to benzene is from breathing auto emissions.

Since the agency didn't treat the soft-drink finding as a public-health issue, neither did the American Beverage Association, says Mike Redman, its vice president of scientific, technical, and regulatory affairs. The group, which represents U.S. soft drink makers and distributors, finally issued guidelines on mitigating benzene in May.

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