Not sure if this is a conspiracy as such but here it is.

I live in the UK and drink a load of coke. From time to time cans appear in the shops that are produced in foreign countries such as Germany or Ireland or the USA.
Why?
Recently I bought some 12oz USA cans, full of high fructose corn syrup, which I dont want to drink and probably made with fluoridated water. Simarly I dont want to drink German water. Anyway the foreign cans always taste bad to me.

Another thing is how can it be profitable to produce cans in say the USA and ship then to UK for sale when its produced in the UK anyway!

I just wanted to post this and see if anyone has had similar experiances and if anyone could offer an explanation.


I have emailed coke a couple of times but they never reply

Oh, it goes so much deeper than that I gather.

For example, I can order a CD from UK and pay less money for it at the end than if I bought it here in Canada. The whole demand and supply thing is messed up and it really appears to be (among other things) about cornering (destroying) local markets and making a few gigantic corporations raking in extreme profits at the expense of the local manufacturers. People are just collateral damage at that point...

I'll oversimplify it, but the way it seems to work is: a virgin market will be identified and since most countries need to borrow money, the IMF will "determine" that in order to get the money, a country must import certain amount of goods (and stop exporting or producing their own). The market is flooded with foreign goods (produced at some other country, at the expense of their cheap labour or whatever) and cheaper than what's offered by the local producers.

In order to compete with the new influx of the foreign goods, local producers have to lower their prices which literally runs them out of business. Then the huge corporations move in all the way and establishing themselves as the only supplier and producer. They will then start producing something else perhaps with the labour there and export it elsewhere under the same scheme.

Perhaps I missed a step or two but that's the gist of it.

I remember the example of Jamaica who before the IMF "moved in" was producing all their milk requirements, locally. When they got blessed with a "loan" they were told that they had to import condensed milk. This imported milk was much cheaper than their locally produced milk that the local dairy industry went under. Same thing happened with potatoes, which are now mostly imported.

There are thousands of other examples, just go to your local grocery store and see what's imported, note the prices. Find out whether it is/was produced locally as well and how much does/did it cost from local producers. Somewhere in the process you'll need to dig out why it was switched from local to import (and I do not mean the "it was cheaper for the grocery chain" excuse, think bigger) and you'll bump into some kind of global trading agreement that was made.

This is just my partial understanding of it, probably just tip of the iceberg, eh.

thanks amigo for your reply

i had never thought of it that way and i dont doubt it knowing what b*stards the coca cola company is. shame i cant stop drinking it

shopkeepers think im strange because i check the back of the cans before buying them, if i explained to them that buying this coke from other countries was not suporting the local economy they might change their views.


and yes TH3ON3 coke here is corn syrup free, its water, sugar, caramel (e150d) phosphoric acid and flavorings.

Originally posted by beefeater
thanks amigo for your reply

i had never thought of it that way and i dont doubt it knowing what b*stards the coca cola company is. shame i cant stop drinking it

shopkeepers think im strange because i check the back of the cans before buying them, if i explained to them that buying this coke from other countries was not suporting the local economy they might change their views.


and yes TH3ON3 coke here is corn syrup free, its water, sugar, caramel (e150d) phosphoric acid and flavorings.

Just wanted to point out one thing how do we really know what is in the products it may be corn syrup free but what are the flavorings ? You can look on any ingredients list and it will say flavor, flavoring, natural flavor etc. almost anything can be classified as a natural flavor

Products that list flavoring and natural flavors always gets me uneasy if everything on earth that is non man made is a natural flavor technically since humans had nothing to do with it.

So couldn't corn be a flavor/natural flavor or any other natural substance that is dangerous ?

The only way you could be somewhat positive that corn, corn syrup or anything else is not in your food is to know every name for a given planet or by product of the plant.

I wouldn't be surprised if some companies listed corn or corn syrup as maize or maize syrup in the ingredients since lot's of people in the US have no clue what maize is.

My personal Opinion

I think American Coke and Canadian Coke are made with glucos and fructose.

Mexican and I'm assuming England from the post above must still use cane sugar.

I think there may be a story about an importer in the USA being sued by pepsi for importing mexican pepsi which uses cane sugar.

if this has already been explained then sorry but I didn't read the whole discussion.

my personal opinion

Interesting, I would have thought the ingredients in coke, no matter where it came from would be identical.

This would keep the unique taste consistent.


Maybe people from different countries take a pic of the ingredients on the can/bottle and post them so we can see the differences.

I remember a guy who found out what cokes secret ingrediant is and it is PRUNE CONCENTRATE .... ha ha - now how do we prove it...

I just called him and he said he heard it from dried Aprocot & Plum wholesaler\supplier in Sacramento, Ca. he believes the guy. I dont know - Prunes ... yuc

[edit on 12-3-2009 by BornPatriot]

I'm not a big Coke drinker, but when I lived in Germany I noticed that (and I can't remember if it was Coke or Pepsi) tasted very different. It seemed to be much more carbonated or something. When it was in my mouth, it seemed lighter and if you swished it around in your mouth, it seemed like you were swishing airy bubbles instead of liquid.


Maybe I am crazy?


I do know that Mt. Dew sold in Canada has no caffiene it it, where as in the US, it's loaded with caffiene.

I drink an unhealthy amount of diet coke ::blush:: I could almost throw a rock from my house to where my coke is made and distributed.

Beefeater, am I matrixing or really seeing "coca-cola" in your avatar?

Originally posted by Whisper67
I drink an unhealthy amount of diet coke ::blush:: I could almost throw a rock from my house to where my coke is made and distributed.

Beefeater, am I matrixing or really seeing "coca-cola" in your avatar?

WOW dayaaang it is a coco-cola avatar.

WTH?

I drink US Made Coca-Cola. All the time. From the can.

I prefer Coca-Cola bottled in Mexico and sold at the Supermercado in the next town. In the tall, one pint bottle.

Cane sugar brings me back to childhood.

Oh, prune extract is NOT used in Coca-Cola. It's put in Dr. Pepper.


An interested drinker,
Cuhail

Yup---Mexican coca-cola is made from cane sugar, as is "kosher" coke. You are missing something (not counting the original coca leaf extract) by drinking coke made in the US or Canada. Try it some time from a local Mexican or kosher store. You will be astonished at the difference.