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In at least five agreements between public and private institutions, Coke has agreed to provide research funds as long as it retains the right to "cancel the progress of studies" and "to put pressure on researchers using the threat of dismissal ". (Representative Image)
Coca-Cola supports research in the areas of nutrition, physical inactivity and energy balance, but a contract mechanism could allow the US giant soft drinks "to cancel" the findings of 39, part of the health research that he finances, reveals a new study from the University of Cambridge.
The study, published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, has identified several clauses in legal documents that allow the company to quickly see the results, combined with the right to "terminate the contract without cause" and to keep away from data and intellectual property.
Taken together, these clauses could remove "critical health information" and could even have already done so, according to the study's authors.
The researchers examined more than 87,000 documents obtained through requests for information access.
"It is certainly true that the contracts we have found allow us to reverse unfavorable developments or conclusions before they are published," said Sarah Steele, senior author, policy researcher at the Cambridge Department of Politics and International Studies.
The authors argued that these clauses violated Coca-Cola's commitments to support science in a transparent and "unrestricted" manner, following a critique of the opaque manner used by some large food companies to fund health research.
"Coca-Cola has declared itself to be at the forefront of transparency in funding health research by giants of food and beverages." In fact, our study suggests that Significant research may never see the light of day and we will never know it, "said Steele. I said.
"We are already hearing nutrition experts say that the food industry is copying Big Tobacco's book tactics." Corporate social responsibility has to be more than simple websites spelling out progressive policies ignored, "added Steele.
Consumption of foods and beverages high in calories and nutrients would be a major factor in the childhood obesity epidemic.
US Right to Know, a nonprofit consumer and public health research group, submitted 129 access to information requests between 2015 and 2018 to academics from North American institutions that received funding from Coca Cola.
The research team scrutinized the vast series of resulting documents and discovered five research agreements with four universities: Louisiana State University, University of South Carolina, University of Toronto and University of Washington.
The funded work includes studies on "energy flows and balances" and research on drink consumption during exercise.
The Coca-Cola Transparency Web site states that scientists retain full control of their research and that the company does not have the right to prevent the publication of results.
However, while contracts indicate that Coca-Cola does not control daily conduct, the company retains various rights throughout the process.
These include the right to receive updates and comment on the results before publication of the research, as well as the power to finish studies earlier without reason, the study said.
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