Before you drink that Pepsi you might want to read this

[Sunshine Locket]

url=http://www.realfarmacy.com/pepsico-says-it-will-halt-use-of-aborted-fetal-cells-in-flavor-research/]PepsiCo Says It Will Halt Use of Aborted Fetal Cells in Flavor Research[/url]

Excerpt:...As reported last November by The New American, a PepsiCo shareholder had filed a resolution with the Securities and Exchange Commission in an effort halt the company from contracting with Senomyx, which, according to documents collected by Vinnedge, used cell lines derived from aborted babies in its process of producing artificial flavor enhancers. According to a report by LifeNews.com at the time, Pepsi had “ignored concerns and criticism from dozens of pro-life groups and tens of thousands of pro-life people who voiced their opposition to PepsiCo contracting with biotech company Senomyx even after it was found to be testing their food additives using fetal cells from abortions.”

Hoping to forestall detractors who will call this an urban legend without reading any further than the title: SNOPES
Pepsi/Senomyx
Claim: Pepsi is using cells from aborted fetuses to create flavor enhancers.


MIXTURE:

FALSE: Pepsi uses material from aborted fetuses in its products.

UNDETERMINED: Pepsi is partnered with a company that uses a cell line derived from an aborted fetus to develop flavor enhancers.




How Cells from an Aborted Fetus are Used to Create Novel Flavor Enhancers
March 17, 2013 *CBS News Video & Mercola article*
Story at-a-glance
The biotech company Senomyx creates novel flavor enhancing compounds for the processed food industry in order to make foods and beverages that taste good while reducing sugar and salt content. Customers include Pepsi Co., Ajinomoto Co. (the maker of aspartame and meat glue), Nestlé and others
The genetically engineered flavor enhancers work by triggering taste receptors on your tongue, effectively tricking your taste buds into sensing sweetness, saltiness, or “coolness”
Senomyx has created a taste testing system that provides scientists with biochemical responses and electronic readouts when a flavor ingredient interacts with their patented receptor, letting them know whether or not they’ve “hit the mark” in terms of flavor. This process uses human kidney cells originating from an electively aborted human fetus
These fetal kidney cells (HEK293) have been cloned for decades, as they offer a reliable way to produce new proteins using genetic engineering. Senomyx has engineered HEK293 cells to function like human taste receptor cells
Flavor enhancers do not need to be listed on food labels, falling instead under the generic category of artificial and/or natural flavors.



Comprehensive List Of Companies That Uses Aborted Fetal Cells As Flavor *This list was compiled prior to PEPSICO's change of policy. Though they still work with Senomyx.

The response letter when PEPSICO was first contacted about this issue and working with Senomyx. PEPSICO Response Letter (PDF)

Related Article:

Pepsi Banned! Debate Not Over
by Stacey Dames

While Pepsico has publicly declared they would no longer use murdered babies to "test for flavor," it appears they are intent on keeping their contract with butcher lab, Senomyx Inc., who may very well be using murdered babies in " product testing" for other companies.

In a letter to her group, PepsiCo’s VP of Global Public Policy, Paul Boykas stated that “Senomyx will not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo.”“We took the matter very seriously,” stated Mr. Boykas. “We have an official Statement on Responsible Research and we intend to live by that policy.” More at link.

 

[Fenny the Fox]

The company uses a line of cells derived from stem cells collected from an aborted fetus. The abortion was DECADES ago. The line is more than 20 years old.
Why should I care that they use these cells? Would you rather the cells just go to waste instead of serving a purpose?
There is no changing that the abortion took place - sad as abortion may ALWAYS be - so why am I going to get up in arms about this?

That said...I am not a bigger fan of most pepsi products anyway. So, whatever.

Next: they aren't actually using the cells IN the products. They are used as a base in the development of chemical additives that enhance (or decrease) receptivity of certain flavors by the taste receptors. The additive is used in the product, not part of the cells.

 

[Sunshine Locket]

Actually stem cells do not last for decades. But thanks for your response.

 

[Fenny the Fox]

Actually stem cells do not last for decades. But thanks for your response.

I repeat my statement:

The abortion was DECADES ago. The line is more than 20 years old.

Your rebuttal means one of two things, either you misread my statement or don't know what it means.

The line of cells in question - these are not cells directly from an aborted fetus, but rather cells that have been derived from those cells - is HEK293. So called because they were first modified from human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells, taken from a fetus legally aborted in the Netherlands in the 1970s.

293 comes from Dr. Frank Graham's habit of naming his experiments by sequential number, wherefore it was his 293rd experiment, apparently. Graham being the person who came up with and published the technique for the altering of the HEK cells in question.

 

[KitKatMatt]

These aren't the same exact cells that were removed in the 70's- these cells have been repeatedly cultured since the 1970's, meaning by the time the old cells died, there were tons of new cells that had been made, and then they carried on the line.

You can take just a few cells from a substance and then repeatedly culture and grow it, use it, grow more, use that, grow even more, for as long as you can keep the line going (which can be decades if not longer if nothing interrupts the process).

...HEK 293 cells trace their origin to a single fetal kidney back in the 1970s - everything since has come from cultured cell lines...

The fetus-derived cell line we're talking about was created around the time I was born. This is 35-year-old technology.

The cells, called HEK 293 cells (that stands for human embryonic kidney) were taken from an aborted fetus in the 1970s in the Netherlands.

No new fetal tissue has been used to keep the cell culture going; the use of this cell line isn't leading to new abortions.

 

[OllieFranz]

Actually stem cells do not last for decades. But thanks for your response.

We are not talking about stem cells, but about a cultured tissue sample.

There are tissue samples from all kinds of medical procedures that have survived for decades. They have been divided into cell colonies that can then be sent to researchers all over the world. The oldest cell line come from the tumor of a woman who died of cancer over fifty years ago. Apparently the particular line this company uses came from kidney tissue of a fetus.

I have no idea when the tissue was harvested or why. For all I know, it was harvested as a biopsy while the fetus was still alive and growing, with the hope of treating a fetus in distress, and the mother opted for abortion because it was dying anyway, and had no hope of surviving til birth. But even if it was an elective abortion, at least something of the child lives.

The tissue was not used in the flavoring, but to test the flavoring. It is not clear exactly what the test consists of, but you are not consuming aborted baby when you drink a Pepsi. I have seen products on the shelves that do include protien derived from aborted fetuses, mostly shampoos and creme rinses/conditioners. Those are clearly worth boycotting. I am not saying Pepsi is not worth boycotting, but with the announcement that they are no longer associated with Senomyx, the purpose of a boycott has already been acheived.

 

[Fenny the Fox]

The tissue was not used in the flavoring, but to test the flavoring. It is not clear exactly what the test consists of, but you are not consuming aborted baby when you drink a Pepsi.

They took the HEK293 cells they have, modify them genetically to act as taste receptors (depending on what they are trying to develop). They then subject these cells to the chemicals they are testing for use to determine if the chemical acts as a stimulant to the "receptor cells".

Or, in some cases, they may do this a little differently and use one chemical as a supressor (this being what they are testing) and a known substance for the stimulant (like sugar or something). This being how they developed additives to actually suppress receptors to enhance flavor in products (I think it was bitter taste receptors being suppressed primarily in use with soy derived products, which can be a bit bitter in some applications).

But either way, you are dead on. You are NOT consuming any part of the cells themselves.

 

[Sunshine Locket]

You and a minor number, than God, of other members very often use the tactic of talking down to members here. Implying they're not intelligent enough to comprehend your words.

Readers have only your original proclamation to go by so as to infer what you were attempting to communicate.
The company uses a line of cells derived from stem cells collected from an aborted fetus. The abortion was DECADES ago. The line is more than 20 years old.

That line of thought does not say what you state in this follow-up. So perhaps the problem is you weren't at first able to be clear on the matter at first.

While following up by rewording the Wikipedia entry on HEK293 Cells allows one to understand your present statement.One which is more clear because it is borrowing other peoples intellectual property without credit to that source and rewording it to generate the false impression of a knowledge you clearly do not actually possess on the subject.

This is the last time we shall speak. I shall not have my intelligence questioned when plagiarism is employed as a means of implying a faux intellectual superiority that is qualified to render that judgment.

I repeat my statement:
Your rebuttal means one of two things, either you misread my statement or don't know what it means.

The line of cells in question - these are not cells directly from an aborted fetus, but rather cells that have been derived from those cells - is HEK293. So called because they were first modified from human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells, taken from a fetus legally aborted in the Netherlands in the 1970s.

293 comes from Dr. Frank Graham's habit of naming his experiments by sequential number, wherefore it was his 293rd experiment, apparently. Graham being the person who came up with and published the technique for the altering of the HEK cells in question.

 

[Fenny the Fox]

You and a minor number, than God, of other members very often use the tactic of talking down to members here. Implying they're not intelligent enough to comprehend your words.

Readers have only your original proclamation to go by so as to infer what you were attempting to communicate.
The company uses a line of cells derived from stem cells collected from an aborted fetus. The abortion was DECADES ago. The line is more than 20 years old.

That line of thought does not say what you state in this follow-up. So perhaps the problem is you weren't at first able to be clear on the matter at first.

While following up by rewording the Wikipedia entry on HEK293 Cells allows one to understand your present statement.One which is more clear because it is borrowing other peoples intellectual property without credit to that source and rewording it to generate the false impression of a knowledge you clearly do not actually possess on the subject.

This is the last time we shall speak. I shall not have my intelligence questioned when plagiarism is employed as a means of implying a faux intellectual superiority that is qualified to render that judgment.

I am so sorry if I sounded condescending or anything. That really, truly was not my intention. I was just a bit brusk - not going into reasons here since they don't really matter, but PM me if you are curious.

I hope you can accept my apologies.



But I still feel I was clear. I did not change my statement in the least from my original. I merely gave a brief history of the cell line.

I clearly stated they were "derived from" the fetal stem cells to begin with. And then went on to say the line (of cells) was quite old at this point.

 

[JGL53]

A person who drinks soft drinks in general doesn't have any concern, apparently, for his or her own health and life.

I think that should be the primary focus of a discussion regarding Pepsi or any similar product.

This is something that I would think every thinking person could agree with, regardless of a person's belief about the abortion issue.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Drinking a cold diet Pepsi right now with lunch. Mmmm mmm

 

[Sunshine Locket]

A person who drinks soft drinks in general doesn't have any concern, apparently, for his or her own health and life.

I think that should be the primary focus of a discussion regarding Pepsi or any similar product.

This is something that I would think every thinking person could agree with, regardless of a person's belief about the abortion issue.

Soda's are definately not the healthiest drink option out there. I don't drink soda's. However, this practice described in the various links in the OP just makes it worse. Far more than just a poor diet choice that compromises ones health.

 

[Hetta]

People shouldn't drink Pepsi just because it's disgusting.

<shudder>

 

[Hetta]

A person who drinks soft drinks in general doesn't have any concern, apparently, for his or her own health and life.

I think that should be the primary focus of a discussion regarding Pepsi or any similar product.

This is something that I would think every thinking person could agree with, regardless of a person's belief about the abortion issue.

ITA.

 

[JGL53]

Drinking a cold diet Pepsi right now with lunch. Mmmm mmm

Oh - so you are pro-choice on deadly drinks? Well, that seems inconsistent but whatever.

 

[ToddNotTodd]

People shouldn't drink Pepsi just because it's disgusting.

<shudder>

DELICIOUS! DELICIOUS I SAY!

 

[JGL53]

DELICIOUS! DELICIOUS I SAY!

And some people think TV dinners are gourmet food and eat them every day.

There's just no accounting for taste, is there?

 

[Fenny the Fox]

A person who drinks soft drinks in general doesn't have any concern, apparently, for his or her own health and life.

Moderation, moderation, moderation.

And avoid ones with corn syrups or such.

But yeah, in general, just not that good for you. It is true.

 

[pgp_protector]

If the issue is the Senomyx line of products, why focus on only one product that uses it?
Shouldn't you avoid the full line of products that use anything from that company ?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wKP12cQgHTQXTngcT3fMHVCXSYt3ZbLqL6NrQEdQzIo/edit?hl=en_US

 

[Sunshine Locket]

If the issue is the Senomyx line of products, why focus on only one product that uses it?
Shouldn't you avoid the full line of products that use anything from that company ?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wKP12cQgHTQXTngcT3fMHVCXSYt3ZbLqL6NrQEdQzIo/edit?hl=en_US

Thanks for the link that adds to this discussion. If you look at the OP near the bottom you'll see a link to other companies that use this method as well in their production.