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How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

middleeastmonitor.com

71–77 of 77 posts

Re: How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By clicking into the comments instead of the article?

not parent, but i often scan comments to get an idea of if it’s worth bothering to read an article. i was more interested in what the ingredient was. the fact its being smuggled (a) doesn’t surprise me and (b) isn’t something im particularly interested in learning about. so, in this case, it wasn’t worth opening the article for me. i learned what i wanted to learn during my normal comment scan that i usually do with…

Yes, exactly this.

I don't read all the news in the world, I don't even read all the news on HN. Having that extra bit of info helps me decide whether to read the article.

Re: How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

#72

If you don't want your corporation's supply chain at risk, maybe use your lobbying dollars to ask the executive branch to actually support foreign nations rather than let them fall into civil war. Sudan has had a military dictatorship from 1989-2019 (led by Omar al-Bashir). In 2017, both President Obama and President Trump lifted sanctions on Sudan, after al-Bashir reneged on a promise to step down just two years ear…

That may be learning the wrong lesson. US corporations have used "securing supply chains" to justify encouraging the US government to incite a whole lot of strife and conflict around the world in the last century-and-a-bit.

Yeah we destablised a whole nation (ok much more than one) just to secure a supply of bananas.

"From 1954 onward Guatemala was ruled by a series of US-backed military dictators, leading to the Guatemalan Civil War which lasted until 1996. Approximately 200,000 civilians were killed in the war, and numerous human rights violations committed, including massacres of civilian populations, rape, aerial bombardment, and forced disappearances"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBFortune

Re: How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

#73
post #70
post #5

80% of the world's supply comes from Sudan...that is certainly a surprise. I'd love to see a table of some of the world's most essential goods that have 80% or more reliance on a single market.

Over 80% of the potash used by U.S. farmers comes from Canadian mines.

I wonder what that statistic will be a year from now.

Re: How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be learning the wrong lesson. US corporations have used "securing supply chains" to justify encouraging the US government to incite a whole lot of strife and conflict around the world in the last century-and-a-bit.

Yeah we destablised a whole nation (ok much more than one) just to secure a supply of bananas. "From 1954 onward Guatemala was ruled by a series of US-backed military dictators, leading to the Guatemalan Civil War which lasted until 1996. Approximately 200,000 civilians were killed in the war, and numerous human rights violations committed, including massacres of civilian populations, rape, aerial bombardment, and fo…

To be fair, the government did it to 'stop communism'. The US fruit companies persuaded the government to 'stop communism' because they wanted to secure cheap bananas.

Re: How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

#75
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60% of IV fluids used in the US came from a single manufacturing plant that got hit by a hurricane last year. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/11/19/nx... My wife gets regular infusions and had to ration for months; the local hospital canceled elective surgeries as well.

IV fluids aren't even difficult to produce compared to gum arabic, its just different salts in water. This is just pure government regulation causing rationing and harming people. For those downvoting me, here's the American Medical Association: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/fixin... > The Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act “to help speed up recovery efforts and get t…

No, it’s not easy. At all.

I’ve worked in parenteral pharmaceutical manufacturing (IV drugs) and making sterile products at scale is actually quite hard to do.

It is true the ingredients are basic. Where the challenge comes in is running a manufacturing line where all products that come out the other end are guaranteed to be 100% sterile.

And actually calling them “sterile” isn’t true, they need to be “pyrogen-free” or "aseptic". Pyrogens are basically “fever causing” materials like fragments of bacterial cell walls.

You can’t just mix up the ingredients and then sterilize it (heat or radiation). There may not be any viable infectious agents (bacteria or viruses) but it will contain fragments like LPS (lipopolysaccharides) which will make patients very sick.

And the finished product is a fantastic growth medium for bacteria since it doesn't typically contain any preservatives to prevent bacterial growth.

So the process requires a number of steps to remove all pyrogens (micro pore filtration) on a large manufacturing plant which is quite challenging when you’re dealing with ten thousand liter process vessels then filling millions of IV bags. Every vessel, line, filter, connection and package in the plant is a potential source of contamination. You also need extensive testing throughout the process to ensure nothing goes wrong.

It’s one of the reason why there are often shortages of generic IV drugs. It’s expensive to set up and requires expertise to maintain the process. If problems happen, production lines can be shutdown for months while the issue is fixed. As a result a lot of manufacturers just exit the market when prices drop because the profit margin gets eaten up every time an issue arises.

You can read the FDA's guidance document and the cGMP guidance to get a sense as to the complexity.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2003-D-0145-0005

Re: How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes please, find another ingredient that doesn't involve smuggling it out of a war-torn country, at the very least. Unfortunately i didn't know this when i bought some and now i got a giant tub of conflict gum that i'll probably never use. I got it to make "Chocolate Frosty" that wouldn't have the tiny ice crystals in it. It didn't work, i think you have to put it in something that is hot in order to activate it, and…

Coca-cola itself doesn't appear to contain gum arabic, at least not in the US. Outside the US, there are Coca-cola products that do though like some Schweppes and Fanta sodas.

I feel like people misinterpreted what i was saying. I will now, when i am looking at a processed food, look for Gum Arabic in the ingredient list, and not purchase anything that contains it. I know what it is, because i have bought it for its intended purpose prior to learning it was possibly smuggled from a conflict area.

I don't have any problem not buying products for reasons like this. No problem whatsoever. So if a company wants me to buy its product, they can use another ingredient that doesn't involve smuggling it out of a conflict zone.

Re: How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

#77
> Sudanese gum accounted for 80 percent of the global gum trade. From 50,000 tons per annum in the 50’s and 60’s, Sudan’s gum exports declined to around 25,000 tons in the late 80’s. Since then, Sudanese exports have been at an average of 25,000 tons.

https://www.ide.go.jp/English/Data/Africa_file/Company/sudan...

Seems weird world population and consumption increased by... a lot sinc ethe 60s but Sudans production halfedand still accounts for 80% of world demand? I guess there's substitutes, or some uses deprecated.

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