What's In This Stuff: Research And Write About What's In Coca-Cola? (Essay Sample)
What's in this Stuff?
Have you ever wondered about the ingredients in your favourite chocolate bar or in the shampoo you used this morning? This assignment has been developed to address the question "What's in this stuff?"
You will choose a consumer product. Products should be either a processed food product (e.g., cookie, cereal, chocolate bar, etc.) or a cosmetic product (e.g., shampoo, conditioner, etc.). Your job will be to write an informative and interesting fact sheet about the product.
Fact sheets provide information about a topic in a format that is brief and easy to read. The focus should be on providing information in a way that is visually appealing and understandable to a lay audience.
Your Fact Sheet should start with a very short (and catchy) introduction and then it should focus on at least four of the ingredients. For each ingredient you should explain:
• what the ingredient is
• why it might be used in this particular product
• other interesting information (e.g. fun facts or safety concerns, etc.)
Choose a product that has a reasonably "complicated" list of ingredients. You want to make sure that there are at least four ingredients in your product that your audience knows very little about. For example, if you choose to examine a chocolate bar you don't really need to talk about sugar but you should explain what polyglycerol polyricinoleate is and why it is in the product. The food additives section in your textbook (chapter 18) might be helpful as a starting point for this assignment.
Fact Sheet Format:
• Three pages (2.0 line spacing), not including the bibliography.
• Use 12 point font
• Your fact sheet should be visually appealing and should include appropriate diagrams and graphics. This is included in the 3 pages limit.
• All references used to create your fact sheet should be included in an additional bibliography. You should strive to obtain information from reputable websites or other publications. For example, government and university websites are "reputable", reallycoolstuffaboutfoodadditives.com is not!
• Keep your audience in mind! You should target your fact sheet towards a well-educated general public. Do not use complicated jargon. The fact sheet should be easy to read and aesthetically pleasing!
Name
Course
Institution
What’s in Coca-Cola?
Introduction
The Coca-Cola Company has a plethora of products that have withstood the test of time as one of the world’s most consumed goods. The company manufactures several brands of soft drinks sold under the Coca-Cola Trademark. Although many people love drinking the Coca-Cola products, very little is known about their recipes. The company owners have kept the formula as a top secret known to only a few unidentified employees. The reason behind maintaining a secrecy of the recipe is to protect the company’s intellectual property. However, through laboratory analysis, there are some ingredients already confirmed in the Coca-Cola drinks. This paper tries to give a fact sheet about the Coca-Cola ingredients CITATION Pal13 \l 2057 (Palermo, 2013).
1 Caffeine
What is Caffeine?
Caffeine is a stimulant of the CNS (Central Nervous System) under the category of methylxanthine. The caffeine is extracted from the plants and is contained in most non-diet Coca-Cola products. The following diagram indicates the chemical structure of the compound.
Figure 1: Chemical structure of Caffeine
Since caffeine is highly soluble in water, it and odorless, it is suitably used in the soft drinks. However, it has a bitter taste, hence it is used in small concentrations. Moreover, sugar and other flavors are used to lower the bitterness of caffeine.
Why it is used in the product
The metabolism of caffeine occurs in the liver where it is converted to three products; paraxanthine, theobromine, and theophylline. The half-life of caffeine is approximately 5-6 hours. The substance is used in the drinks to bring about the Alertness as well as awareness. The compound blocks the receptors of adenosine in the blood hence lowering the brain signals that alert the body to sleep or slow down its activities. Moreover, caffeine brings about positivity in the mind by increasing the levels of dopamine. Therefore, the Coca-Cola drinks are associated with motivation as well as productivity (Caffeine Informer, 2016).
Other Interesting fun facts/ safety concerns
If one is used to taking a coke when it gets hot, it becomes hard to do without it. Therefore, the Coca-Cola drinks have a sense of addiction attributable to the caffeine ingredient. Caffeine also increases the blood pressure. The Coca-Cola drinks are not recommended for people with hypertension because the caffeine in them increases the release of the stress hormones (Caffeine Informer, 2016).
2 Merchandise 7X
What merchandise 7X? Why it is used in the product
Merchandise 7X is a combination of synthetic flavors that have been secretly used to give the Coca-Cola products the perfect taste. Merchandise 7X has been confirmed as a secret ingredient behind the outstanding taste of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company faces a stiff competition from its biggest rival Pepsi. The company struggles to maintain at the top of the market by keeping secrets of the formula. However, due to pressure especially from the FDA, the Coca-Cola Company has been forced to disclose some of the active ingredients in its syrup (Palermo, 2013).
Other Interesting fun facts/ safety concerns
Merchandise 7X is believed to be carcinogenic. For this reason, several states are considering the proposals to ban the Coca-Cola products. For this reason, the Coca-Cola executives are faced with a challenge of reformulating the recipe. The Coca-Cola ingredients have been changing from time to time due to legal issues surrounding the formula. Therefore, it is necessary to limit the consumption of the drinks to avoid chances of interacting with harmful ingredients.
3 Sodium Benzoate
What is Sodium Benzoate?
Sodium benzoate is an organic compound with the formula; C7H5O2Na. It is either crystalline or in a liquid state. The chemical is odorless and has an astringent-sweet taste. It has a high boiling point of between 450-475oC. The figure below indicates its chemical structure.
Figure 2: Chemical Structure of Sodium Benzoate
Why it is used in the product
Sodium Benzoate is used in the Coca-Cola products as a preservative. The Coca-Cola products contain several ingredients such as sugars that are susceptible to destruction by the microorganisms. The preservative is necessary to maintain the taste as well as the safety of the products.
Other Interesting fun facts/ safety concerns
However, sodium ben...
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