Why do Many Beverages Include Wood Rosin?

I drank a 12-oz orange Gatorade before bed last night and I feel like crap today. Woke up with a headache and tinnitus and feeling queasy. I get migraines, but not very often. usually they are preceded by a strong aura (no aura today). Seeing that others are (ANON 263104 and ANON 1001901) reporting similar reactions has me wondering if this stuff is the common thread.

I have been getting these "bad days" every once in a while for years, and I'd love to be able to figure out what causes them and eliminate it from my diet.

"There is no evidence that wood rosin poses any sort of health risk to consumers."

If your local hardware store sells it in the same aisle as the Minwax, I'll bet you dollars to donuts that there's a LOT of evidence saying there's a health risk.

OSHA > FDA

My son got a severe migraine after drinking Trader's Joes Sparkling Pink Lemonade, which contained glycerol ester of wood rosin. After another test, we realized that the GEWR had most likely caused his migraine (vomiting, weak for two days. It was a bad one.) I'm posting this for other people who are trying to put the pieces together and figure out what made them sick. Yes, glycerol ester of wood rosin can cause migraines in sensitive individuals.

From the little I have read, the glycerol ester of rosin and brominated vegetable oil (BVO) have the same purpose, to stabilize the oils in the carbonated water of many soft drinks. However BVO is a toxic and dangerous ingredient in large quantities. Its use has been banned in Japan and European countries. BVO can cause many different disorders including cancer. It is in most fruit flavored drinks, e.g., Mtn Dew, Gatorade/Powerade, fanta, fresca, etc. So the glycerol ester of rosin is a much safer alternative.

I am having the same problem here in Canada. I recently found out I have a contact allergy to colophony resin or rosin. It's impossible to find a list of foods, soaps or just about anything containing this ingredient.

Is there anywhere on the net where someone can find such information? I've been to a dermatologist and an allergist, and they say check the ingredient list. How, when there are so many spin off names for this stuff? It's insane.

I am allergic to this. It gives we unbearable eczema.

I guess it's all in how it's synthesized. I take Pychnogenal, which is another derivative of pine. I take it for my joints and I love it. Of course this is organic, and perhaps a different version of what wood rosin is. This just sounds bad and will not drink anything but my soda stream carbonated water.

The problem is if you are newly allergic to colophony, finding the products that contain it and do not contain it is next to impossible. It goes by so many different names, it is hard to figure out if it is in the ingredients or not.

I read it's in fruit flavored drinks, not in the ingredient list of Dr. Pepper and not in the list of ingredients of Breyer's ice cream, but they use tara gum to thicken it. I am very allergic to this chemical and am having a terrible time figuring this out.

It sounds like this is the same pine resin as used for making Greek Retsina wine, which according to one online source, has been drunk for over 2000 years. Pliny the Elder notes "resin from mountainous areas [as] having a better aroma than those that come from lower lands".

I can live and be happy without drinking Gatorade

and other drinks with that in it. We now have over 70,000 new chemicals in our lives, and I chose to eat or drink as few as possible.

I stopped eating crackers, etc. that had TBHQ, which is the same butane used in the lighters. And we thought that smoking was bad. I guess we are what we eat and drink.

There are three sources of rosin:

1) Wood rosin, extracted from pine stumps.

2) Gum rosin, obtained from live pine trees.

3) Tall oil rosin: obtained by distillation of a sub-product of paper manufacture.

All three are regularly esterified with glycerol, and all three esters are approved for the manufacture of chewing gum and adhesives in contact with food.

Of these three, only one is approved as a beverage additive: the one made with wood rosin. There is only one wood rosin manufacturer: Hercules Inc. (now called PINOVA). Hercules (PINOVA) is the company that originally got the product approved, many years ago, and the market is simply too small for any other manufacturer (of gum rosin or tall oil rosin) to go through the paces of getting it approved for that use.

Glycerol esters rosin are products which are categorized by the FDA as "generally recognized as safe". Please note that when you talk about glycerol esters of wood rosin, you are talking about a product which only one manufacturer is authorized to sell.

If you analyzed a good quality glycerol ester from any of the three sources without knowing its origin, you would be unable to determine which one of the three is in your hands. I know. I manufactured gum rosin esters for many, many years.

The whole situation is odd. About 20 years back I started noticing certain digestive reaction to orange soda. It always seemed to clean me out in a hurry. Then I looked at the label. Ester of wood rosin stared back at me like the culprit and I knew I'd found the cause.

A few years later, I found one or two other flavors of soda that had the same effect and lo and behold, they contain the same wood rosin.

Nowadays, after avoiding this ingredient for years, whenever I need a cleaning out, ester of wood rosin to the rescue!

Every time I eat or drink anything that has it, I get migraine-like symptoms: severe headaches, nausea, and sometimes blurry vision. I would never say that it's not a threat to consumers.

I'm only 23 and I remember as a child being able to drink all of my favorite orange or grape flavored sodas with no problems, because they didn't have glycerol ester of wood rosin. I only drink soda once or twice a month these days, when I go out, and it stinks knowing that I can't order the beverage that I want at a restaurant for fear that I will have to spend the rest of the day in bed writhing in pain. What has changed in the last 10-15 years that now requires its use?

When people need to scientifically and legally describe what goes into food, they have to use a name that describes exactly what is that they're adding.

The more 'natural' the substance, the more complicated-sounding the name. That is because *life* is a lot more complex than anything we can come up with in a lab in food-grade, commercial quantities that would taste good. It does not mean that someone in some lab like a modern-day Clark Griswold is doing frankenstein-stuff to your food.

Just get over it.

What people don't realize is that even though this substance occurs naturally in pine trees, that it does not mean that it is a naturally occurring substance in soda. It has to be chemically processed in some way to extract exactly what the producers want, and that is where the problem lies.

What extra chemicals are used, and how much of those chemicals are going into my body along with the glycerol esther of rosin? I don't believe for a second that anything that has to be processed is natural in any way. Just saying...

Thanks for the clear, understandable explanation. I had a pine allergy as a child and am still sensitive to it, and did not know until now that the wood rosin actually came from pine. This helps explain the food poisoning-like effects after drinking certain sodas. I'll avoid this in the future by reading the labels more carefully.

I worry about what I ingest, so I naturally looked it up. Wow, so did a lot of other people. As long as people have been ingesting this stuff, if there were even the remotest threat, we would know about it. If it is limited to 100 ppm, that number probably came from a combination of research of how much of it is needed to achieve the desired affect, and how much of the stuff someone might have to ingest for it to be dangerous. I drink soda chock full of it, eat things full of all sorts of things the health nuts inform me are going to kill me all of the time.

I am nearly 50 and in much better shape, physically and mentally than anyone I knew who were 50 while I was a child. I do the right things, such as looking up ominous sounding chemicals in my food and drink, and take pretty good care of my general health. My kids have a good long wait before they get any money from me... hmmmm, I guess I should say that it will be a good long time before I will not be alive to give it to them.

People who are scared of this: Glycerol ester of wood rosin is not harmful to you. An ester is a classification of organic molecule. Esters are most noted for their (usually) pleasant smells. As a matter of fact, the aromas of banana, hazelnut, and vanilla are all esters (along with many others).

Glycerol just gives you a "sub-class" of ester (it is an ester with a gycerol group on it.) The fact that it is "of wood rosin" just tells you where it's attained.

So let me reiterate. It's not dangerous. especially at only 100ppm. and if you drink a hundred cans of soda with this, it's still at 100ppm. that parts don't add up (look it up if you don't believe me.)

As for the "allergy" people. I am allergic to so many things. So what do I do? I read the ingredients for basically everything. why? because i want to be safe. Food doesn't need warnings for every allergen. Or any at all! You just need to read the ingredients.

Health freaks: It's not bad for you. Just because something is a chemical doesn't mean it's bad. Natural doesn't mean anything either.

Nicotine: Natural/Bad

Methamphetamines: Synthetic/Bad

Glucose: Natural/good

Acetaminophen: Synthetic/Good

it's far better than high fructose corn syrup -- a man-made sweetener added to many products in the 70s to enhance the flavor in foods. the problem is that your body doesn't recognize this. it shuts off the natural appetite control switch. you can down a 2 liter bottle of soda and won't even recognize when you've had enough. prior to this product being available. your body would know it's had enough and stop. this has greatly contributed in making america a fat nation. weird huh?

as for tree rosin: if it concerns you, choose a cleaner product.

So it's tree sap. And people think it's bad. I guess that means maple syrup is the number one killer in the country today. Boycott anyone who serves waffles! Tree sap haters unite!

Obviously, if you have allergies, you should be constantly aware of what they are, reading labels, living a strict life of what you can and can't ingest, and realizing your life stinks. sorry, not everything is meant for everyone (i can't smoke clove cigarettes, drink chai, or have pumpkin pie so i know how badly it stinks to have something that your body just can't take).

As for you health nuts, you're all going to die. Geot over it. if you enjoy drinks that have ester of rosin, more power to you, like the guy said, it naturally comes from pine trees, and if you don't like it, stop being a brat to everyone that does, and get over it.

if you even passed chem 1 in high school, you would know that what he's saying about mixing water and oil is 100 percent fact, and that the liquids require a way of being joined.

Also, if you have ever lived in a major city, you would know that there are in fact more chemicals in your tap water than there are in most sodas, so try not to freak out the next time you wash your food or take a shower.

so thank you paranoid america. after all, your government is trying so very, very hard to kill you.

O.K., now explain, for the chemically-challenged (etc.), how we get "glycerol ester of wood rosin". First, there was the tree, then someone said, 'let there be wood', and so we had wood, and it was good. Did they have to do anything but cut the wood from the tree? Like chemically pulp it or something?

Then someone said, 'I want rosin from the wood' and somehow, they made rosin from wood.

Then yet another someone said, 'I want ester of wood rosin,' and looking around and finding no one named Ester, they took wood rosin and made some, again, somehow. (I'm not a chemist.)

Then Ester decided she wanted to marry Glycerol, and how do you marry Glycerol with Ester (of wood rosin)? Some 'natural' chemical process? Anyway, they did marry, and had little ones.

And now, we all have a little Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin, naturally. Take good care of yours (they like a little fruit oil with water.)

I love it! Thanks for the explanation! Many years ago, I noticed it on a can or a bottle and joked, "You know, it's that hint of ester of wood rosin that really does it for me. I couldn't drink it without it."

Turns out I'm not joking, after all.

Poison ivy and nettles are natural, and so is snake venom and peyote cactus. Just because a chemical is synthesized naturally doesn't mean that is it beneficial an organism (or the human body).

Let's focus on the facts. Yes, it is safe to consume at very low levels. At worst it might cause very low, low-level negative health effects. Is that worth it just so you can have a flavored drink with a more uniform taste? Some would say yes.

I just try to avoid the chemical when I can.

This stuff is also sprayed on raw vegetables.

But, probably most important, the machine used to produce this substance is way more carbon neutral than a factory somewhere producing a man made alternative.

Most of you commenters don't seem to be listening. This ingredient is not some random chemical! It is about as natural of an ingredient as it gets. It comes from pine trees.

And if you think its weird drinking something from a tree, consider this: That coffee that you likely drink every morning is just a bunch of ground up tree seeds mixed with water. Does that sound good when you really think about it? Certainly not to me.

When I think of eating natural, trees seem to me to be about the most natural thing there is.

This is the clearest, most concise explanation I've found online. Thank you! I am allergic to glycerol ester of wood rosin; I feel light-headed and short of breath--similar to being drunk.

Not too bad a reaction, but I still avoid it because I never know when I might go into severe anaphylactic shock. It's really a shame because Squirt is the most amazing soft drink.

Squirt rocks! I guess I like pine trees in my soda!

"Without the ester of wood rosin as a stabilizer, the flavoring oil would eventually separate and the beverage would become unpalatable."

until one shakes it before use.

@anon51090, an ester is a classification of organic molecules.

what is an ester? i don't understand.

My daughter is allergic to the additive of ester of wood they have started to put in fruit flavored pop. Her throat starts to feel like it is closing up her airway. This has happened three times now and each time her reaction is worse than the last one. She has had to take an antihistamine and her asthma inhaler right away to help her breathe. They need to put a warning on the label regarding this. There have to be others who also are allergic to it.

3 drinks @ 100ppm keeps the rosin in the same ratio. 100/1,000,000 = 300/3,000,000

All I know is it tastes funny. I feel crappy after I drink soda containing this. With all these chemicals in my food and drinks, well I think I'm going to live forever. I say let's preserve and chemicalize everything. When I die I want to be preserved like a TasteyKake. Those darn things just won't mold. Something strangely odd about that. Ester of wood rosin and a Krimpet in a blender. I could drink these 3 times a day and live forever.

sounds like hogwash to me.fruit flavored sodas 20 or 30 years ago didn't have it and tasted a lot better.be careful what the system tells you.don't believe it all.

What if someone were allergic to the particular tree or wood used to make the wood rosin? An allergic reaction could be life-threatening and people wouldn't necessarily know to look in their soft drinks or carbonated beverages for wood-related allergens.

What about this product causing metabolic acidosis? If it is the same as wood alcohol then this would be the case, and this can be detrimental to athletic performance let alone health and wellness.

That was the clearest, most complete, exact, and satisfactory answer I have found while searching the net in a very, very long time! Thanks!

If only 100 parts per million are allowed, then anything over is bad. So, what if you consume three drinks containing 100 ppm each within one hour? Does your body eliminate the rosin as usual, or is there a potential for dangerous build up? Does this pose a threat to our digestive tract, liver, or anything else? With the rise of cancer, it seems that ingredients that do not naturally occur in our diet may pose a danger...?

great explanation. I always wondered what it was. Pine trees are natural, so I feel better about drinking some traces of it