Global drinks major Coca-Cola is removing brominated vegetable oil (BVO) as ingredient from its Powerade sports drink, as it is linked to a flame retardant and has not been approved for use in Japan or the European Union.

The move comes after a Mississippi teen has filed a petition claiming that the ingredient is being used in a drink, which is being marketed targeting health-conscious athletes.

The fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavours of Powerade that are being sold across Detroit, Omaha, New York, and Washington does not contain brominated vegetable oil.

However, some Powerade bottles still feature the controversial ingredient.

Coca-Cola has previously announced that it uses BVO to improve stability, as well as avoid certain ingredients from separating.

The BVO is still listed as an ingredient for Powerade’s fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavors in Powerade’s website.

Apart from fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavors, Powerade is also available in Orange, Mountain Berry Blast, Grape, Lemon Lime, Sour Melon and White Cherry (Initially titled Arctic Shatter).

PepsiCo had also announced plans to remove the ingredient from Gatorade in the previous year.