The two biggest players in the soft drinks industry are being shoved into the spotlight with the news that their beverages contain the controversial ingredient brominated vegetable oil (BVO). Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is an ingredient used to bring out the flavors in fruit-flavored drinks.

On Monday, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo announced that that the companies are exerting efforts to remove BVO in all their drinks (Mountain Dew, Powerade and Fanta, to name a few). BVO became a controversial ingredient when Sarah Kavanagh, a teenager from Mississippi, made a public mass appeal on Change.org to remove BVO from Coke's Powerade and Pepsi's Gatorade drinks. Kavanagh explained that BVO was patented as a flame retardant and that both Japan as well as the European Union have disapproved of its use in Coke and Pepsi's soft drinks.

Pepsi announced plans to remove BVO from its Gatorade drinks last year. On Monday, the company released a statement saying that Pepsi is making efforts to take the BVO out of their other beverages as well; Pepsi's Amp energy drink and Mountain Dew both currently contain BVO. The company, however, did not say when the project will be completed.

Similarly, Coke has also announced on Monday that the company is in the process of removing BVO from all their drinks. Powerade, Fresca, Fanta and Coke's other citrus-flavored fountain drinks all currently contain BVO. The company stated that the project will be completed by the end of 2014. Coke added that the company will use sucrose acetate isobutyrate and glycerol ester of rosin instead. Sucrose acetate isobutyrate has been used for over 14 years in beverages, while glycerol ester of rosin is used in both drinks and chewing gums.

Kavanagh, 17, plans to initiate another appeal on Change.org requesting Pepsi to remove BVO from all its beverages. She has expressed her appreciation for big companies that listen to consumers.