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A friend just came over and apparently Pepsi is made from people.

Or, more specifically:

The aborted human fetal cell line is known as “HEK-293,” and it is used to see how the human palate will react to synthetic flavors. Since most of today’s processed food lacks flavor, companies like Semonyx are hired to develop flavors on their own.

“What they don’t tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 — human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors,” said Debi Vinnedge of the pro-life group Children of God for Life. “They could have easily chosen animal, insect, or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors.”

(though it looks like that post says that they use these cells to develop flavors, not as actual additives).

The claim I heard was that Pepsi contains cells from humans - is this true?

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Wayne Werner
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    "The claim I heard was that Pepsi contains cells from humans" - but as you point out, that's not what the quote you supplied says. Can you show that the claim you heard is a [notable claim](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/2506/what-is-a-notable-claim#), by quoting someone that actually says Pepsi contains cells from humans? – ff524 Nov 14 '16 at 23:42
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    "Pepsi contains cells from humans" is a common claim as reported by Snopes http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/pepsi.asp – Avery Nov 14 '16 at 23:43
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    @Avery It doesn't say "contains" human cells on that Snopes link, it says "manufactured using" human cells. – ff524 Nov 14 '16 at 23:57
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    I'd guess there are almost certainly some human cells in Pepsi, e.g. skin cells from the people who make the cans or service the production equipment. Sanitizing the equipment, wearing gloves and gowns, etc, would remove most of them but surely not all. And as soon as you open the can with your fingers, you'll introduce lots more. – Nate Eldredge Nov 15 '16 at 01:01
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    This comment thread seems to have gone a bit off the rails, even considering the sensitive nature of the question. –  Nov 16 '16 at 03:26
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    @NateEldredge, it's an interesting observation that "Pepsi will contain cells - from handling!" But that isn't relevant to the (whacky) idea that the "Pepsi recipe contains cells." If (ridiculously) "the Pepsi recipe did in fact include cells!!" that would be an astounding fact, we would want to know about. (Note that - of course - the recipe for Pepsi does not, obviously, contain cells. That's just silly. The germane question at hand is the other one, "are cells used in researching Pepsi".) – Fattie Nov 16 '16 at 17:08
  • "used to make" initially leads one to think we're referring to an ingredient, not as a means of testing protocols. It made me click on the question. Well done. – PoloHoleSet Nov 17 '16 at 15:52
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    PEPSI IS PEOPLE!!! – AbraCadaver Nov 17 '16 at 20:35
  • This sounds like one of the fake news stories to boycott Pepsi because the CEO is a politically correct social justice warrior who hates Trump. – Chloe Nov 17 '16 at 22:33
  • Wait, am I getting this right? They are claiming that Pepsi *deliberately* includes specifically cells from "an electively aborted baby" instead of animal cells or "morally obtained human cells" even though those would have the same effect? So the only reason Pepsi allegedly does it is to be evil? What the $% is *wrong* with these people? – Michael Borgwardt Nov 18 '16 at 10:44
  • @MichaelBorgwardt if I had to guess it's the fact that many people find abortions to be so reprehensible that bringing up abortion automatically turns it into an emotional issue. And *of course* abortions are a thing, and *of course* abortions are bad, so now if you try to say that Pepsi *doesn't* contain dead babies you're saying that we need to abort all the babies. Because that's the way their minds work, I'm pretty sure. – Wayne Werner Nov 18 '16 at 15:21

2 Answers2

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The claims people bring to this site never fail to impress! This is more false than it is true.

  1. Pepsi does not contain HEK-293 cells. HEK cells were used to test different kinds of sweeteners to determine their reaction. To repeat, people who drink Pepsi are not drinking anything that originally came from a human. (sources: Forbes, LifeSiteNews)

  2. HEK-293 cells were indeed originally derived from an aborted human fetus, but they have been heavily mutated by a virus and are not easily recognizable. For scientific purposes they are a tool, not a research subject or a food, making them not much different in practice than HeLa cells.

    The transformation resulted in the incorporation of approximately 4.5 kilobases from the viral genome into human chromosome 19 ... The type of kidney cell that the HEK293 cell line is unknown, and it is difficult to conclusively characterize the cells post-transformation, since adenovirus 5 could have significantly disrupted cell morphology and expression.

    (source: HEK-293.com)

On the other hand, the use of human cells in biological research is a real ethical and legal issue, as discussed in, for example, the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and the court case Moore v. Regents of the University of California.

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  • By the way, the Wikipedia article [HEK 293 cells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEK_293_cells) says the HEK 293 is more likely to originate from the adrenal gland of this human fetus, than from the kidney. If it is really adrenal cells, maybe "kidney cell" is not so precise. But this is not central to the current discussion, of course. – Jeppe Stig Nielsen Nov 15 '16 at 22:05
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    FWIW it reads to me that HEK-293 were not used to develop Pepsi, But were used to check that some new sweeteners were not poisonous, and those sweeteners are used in some versions of Pepsi (Diet presumably). Those sweeteners are probably also in lots of other foods as well. – DarcyThomas Nov 16 '16 at 00:48
  • Do you know if Pepsi used those HEK 293 cells during development? As in, maybe not an ingredient in the actual formula, but was indeed used to help develop the formula? If so, do you know if a list of items/products that used any tissue from an aborted human fetus in a similar manner? – James Haug Nov 16 '16 at 05:41
  • "The claims people bring to this site never fail to impress!" although on most SO sites I'm totally in favor of general asides, chat, greetings and so on - I sometimes think, on SO, it's better to be totally factual. – Fattie Nov 16 '16 at 16:40
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    @JoeBlow Ok. I disagree. – Avery Nov 16 '16 at 16:45
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    The second point seems to be saying this: "X is not used in researching-Pepsi. X is used-used in researching-Pepsi. X is used in the using of researching-Pepsi." I appreciate all the extended facts you have given, but it seems to be, utterly, clearly, the case that ***"X is used in researching-Pepsi"***. (Sure, it's interesting to add any further information such as "they only used a part of it" - which appears to be what you are saying?) – Fattie Nov 16 '16 at 16:59
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    To perhaps make an analogy; many folks (in Europe, not China) don't want "animals to be used" in researching cosmetics. So, if one said "Oh, animals were not used in testing Y, only animals were used in some process that was then used in testing Y" ... to me that's what has happened here in this answer. Look at it this way: let's say you are opposed to the use of HEK-293. Since HEK-293 is used in researching Pepsi - well, that's it, it is used in researching Pepsi. You wouldn't, thus, support/buy/etc Pepsi, if, you are opposed to the use of HEK-293. No? – Fattie Nov 16 '16 at 17:03
  • The second point is saying that the fetus is only involved via a strain of its mutated cells which have been duplicated for many years and are no longer considered "property" of the fetus as per Moore v. Regents of the University of California. It's not like Pepsi sweetener is being injected into the body of a fetus, which is not something I expected to be picturing in my head this evening. I think there is a possible ethical difference there. – Avery Nov 16 '16 at 17:11
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    Hmm, I'm confused by why we're discussing "ethics"? (Who even said there was anything "wrong" or "right" with the idea of "human cells being used in Pepsi research" - how was this issue raised? Is the OP *for* or *against* such things?) It's hard to see the question as being any more straightforward, *"Is HEK-293 used in researching Pepsi?" – Fattie Nov 16 '16 at 17:15
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    The actual claim being made is that Pepsi contains cells "from humans". So I explained this in detail. – Avery Nov 16 '16 at 18:34
  • @JoeBlow Because the ethics provide crucial context. If you’d just say “yep, cells from human embryos are used in the development of X” then an uninformed person would easily recoil in terror. An informed person is much less likely to because they possess more information about the process and about the ethical implications (which, in this case, aren’t black-and-white but really a lot more nuanced than shredding an embryo into a drink bottle). – Konrad Rudolph Nov 17 '16 at 13:01
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    "then an uninformed person would easily recoil in terror" - but this site is entirely about black and white factual issues. We don't make any judgements on this site about whether certain persons are "uninformed" (ie, "we don't agree with their beliefs and decisions"), and the concept is not even raised. We don't care or know what anyone thinks or doesn't think about "human cells used in Pepsi research" - this site is here to answer the question are: "human cells used in Pepsi research". – Fattie Nov 17 '16 at 15:01
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    The original claims in the post do not identify HEK-293 as an ingredient, so stating that there are no cells in Pepsi is addressing an issue that wasn't raised, but one that someone might assume by the wording of the question. – PoloHoleSet Nov 17 '16 at 15:54
  • @Fattie Well, if you allow that sort of indirect connection then not just human cells but *entire humans* were used in producing Pepsi. Because they tasted the drink and told the engineers how well they liked it and that was used to select which version of the drink would be the best one. – user253751 Feb 26 '19 at 03:57
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Pepsi is certified kosher in the US, Mexico, and Canada (source), so there cannot be any human products involved in Pepsi made at those locations, as human flesh is not kosher. Kashrus certification involves intimate knowledge of each ingredient used in the product.

From Wikipedia:

This certification verifies that the ingredients, production process, and/or food-service process complies with the standards of kashrut (Jewish dietary law) as stipulated in the Shulchan Arukh, the benchmark of religious Jewish law.

This at least erases skepticism in the US, Mexico, and Canada. The recipe is presumably the same in different countries.

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Menasheh
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    Unfortunately, unless we know for sure the certification authority didn't overlook this, it's not a proof that Pepsi does not contain human cells. – yo' Nov 16 '16 at 06:59
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    @yo If there was any significant chance that the certification authority overlooked it, noone for whom kosher matters would be able to rely on that entity - How did they become an "authority?" By gaining trust. Also there are routine inspections, it's hard to miss this sort of thing again and again and again. – Menasheh Nov 16 '16 at 07:07
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    Sorry, but trust itself is not evidence. If you trust they are not lying, that's another case, but even then you shall see the methodology used. I pretty doubt they made a special test for human cells contamination of the coke. If they did the test, it would be nice to mention that in the answer with a link to the source. – yo' Nov 16 '16 at 07:13
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    @yo' See updated answer. They certify that no non-kosher ingredients were used. If you want to be skeptical of that, I suppose that's another question in itself. – Menasheh Nov 16 '16 at 07:26
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    For those wondering whether human flesh is kosher or not: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/19071/is-human-flesh-a-kosher-food – Andrew Grimm Nov 16 '16 at 08:51
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    "The recipe is presumably the same in different countries." - That's *not* a [safe assumption](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3255034/Coca-Cola-Pepsi-brands-differ-sugar-world.html) – Oddthinking Nov 16 '16 at 14:03
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    But this only addresses the ingredients. (Of course, obviously, the idea that Pepsi *contains* cells in the recipe is a silly urban myth.) The interesting question at hand is whether the cells are *used in research* for Pepsi. I don't think the Kosher aspect relates to the before-production research of a product: also it's very unlikely Kosher authorities would yet have caught up on such an up-to-the-minute issue and issued a ruling on it. – Fattie Nov 16 '16 at 17:12
  • @JoeBlow - Oh! It seems I completely misinterpreted the question. Pepsi meant to refer to Pepsico and contains meant in a research laboratory, as opposed to "free" such cells roaming the earth? – Menasheh Nov 16 '16 at 17:17
  • Thanks for the link Andrew. Also, @Oddthinking, that seems to be a difference in quantity, but you have a fair point. – Menasheh Nov 16 '16 at 17:18