Free Republic

(Hartford-AP, Apr. 6, 2006 1:18 PM) _ Two top Democrats are accusing Coca Cola of pushing sugary sodas on Connecticut public schools. Senate President Don Williams and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal pointed to contracts with two schools. They claim the soda company provides schools with financial incentives to fill vending machines with soda and not more healthy products, such as juice and water. But an attorney for Coke denies the charge. He says those contracts are five years old. One has expired and the other district bans soda sales. Attorney Bart Halloran says he's not aware of any schools that...

Coca-Cola, which was damaged by a contamination scare five years ago, was forced to withdraw its Dasani bottled water brand from the UK on Friday after discovering it contained illegal levels of a chemical that could increase the risk of cancer. The embarrassing voluntary recall brought back painful memories of 1999, when several Belgian children fell ill after drinking contaminated Coke, prompting a widespread recall of the soft drink across Europe and a public relations nightmare for the company. The slow and impersonal response to the crisis by Douglas Ivester, Coca-Cola's chief executive, was one reason for his departure from...

A big row has broken out after Coca-Cola admitted its latest bottled drink is purified tap water. The drink - called Dasani - costs 95p a bottle. A lot of bottled water comes from a spring, but this is tap water which has been filtered and treated. The product has annoyed the people who supply the UK's water. They think it implies that tap water is impure. Coca-Cola said: "We would never say tap water isn't drinkable. It's just that Dasani is as pure as water can get." Popular The company is spending £7m on launching Dasani, which has become...