Coke has no alcohol in it, says manufacturer

Coca-Cola Malaysia's public affairs and communications director Kadri Taib said alcohol was not an ingredient and no fermentation took place during the manufacture of the drink.

"The precise formulation of the drink is our company's most valuable trade secret.

"The ingredients and manufacturing process are rigorously regulated by government and health authorities in more than 200 countries, including Malaysia, which have consistently
recognised the beverage as a non-alcoholic product," he said.

The clarification about alcohol is essential for the beverage manufacturer in the Muslim majority nation since Islam forbids it.

A weekly radio programme, This American Life, said it had discovered the formula from  the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The article featured a photograph of a notebook with a handwritten list of ingredients allegedly needed to make the famous drink.

Ingredients included lime juice, vanilla, caramel, various types of fruit-derived oils, nutmeg and alcohol. The programme claimed the notebook originally belonged to a friend of John Pemberton, the pharmacist who created Coca-Cola in 1886.

Kadri said "This American Life" had many times tried to crack the secret recipe but failed, New Straits Times reported Thursday.