Did you guys get the update on Four Loko? Like I told you in my previous blog about Four Loko, the drink is a mixture of alcohol and caffeine. The FDA said that it was going to take action against these types of drinks unless they could prove that they were safe. According to npr.org, yesterday, Phusion Projects (the maker of Four Loko) announced that they would change Four Loko’s formula and remove the caffeine, guarana (the herb seeds are rich in caffeine), and taurine (an amino acid that is thought to boost mental and athletic performance – although not scientifically proven). Obviously Phusion Projects is doing this to prevent their product from being removed from store shelves. This is interesting to me, because if the company is getting rid of part of the ingredients then it must mean that they can’t prove that the product is safe. So, to avoid getting their product banned, they plan to change the ingredients instead.

NPR also brought up a good question – is Four Loko going to change its name to One Loko? It was named Four Loko because of its four main ingredients-caffeine, guarana, taurine, and alcohol. If they remove three of them then technically the name should be One Loko. I was talking to my co-worker and I told her that One Loko would make an ugly name and she said “yes, but Four Loko isn’t a great name either”. Honestly, I think the name Four Loko is catchy; four types of crazy sounds cooler than one type of crazy. Who knows, maybe the change in the formula and the change in name might bring and end to this popular drink.

-Erica