Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness

The Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness was created by Coca-Cola to counter criticisms of the role of food and beverage companies in the obesity epidemic.

According to Coca-Cola, the role of the institute is to support "nutrition research, education and outreach, with a primary focus on beverages. The Beverage Institute is responsible for evaluating emerging wellness trends and ingredients on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company, conducting clinical research in support of Company brands and establishing research programs that lay the foundation for the development of new beverages to meet the nutritional and wellness needs of consumers."

PR Efforts
One of the major efforts of the Institute is to dispel any notions that Coca-Cola's products might be harmful. According to a study by Michele Simon of the Center for Food Safety (CFS), the Institute releases studies with distracting words like "hydration" and "energy balance."

According to PR Week the institute will also "communicate with health professionals and consumers about nutrition, physical activity, and health maintenance issues." CFS further reports that the topics of this educational seminars include "energy balance," to shift the focus from eating issues to exercise, "aspartame" to dispel negative views on artificial sweeteners, and "biotechnology" to “address common misconceptions about the safety of genetically-modified foods.”

Contact
Website: http://beverageinstitute.org/us/

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * John Foreyt
 * Obesity PR