Production of Coca Cola

* The main ingredients of Coca Cola are

• Carbonated water
• Sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup (depending on country of origin)
• Caffeine
• Phosphoric acid
• Caramel colour
• Natural flavourings

The natural flavourings make up the Coca Cola formula, which is a closely guarded secret. This is made in a secret location, before being shipped to bottling factories all over the world. There are almost 900 bottling plants around the world, such as the bottling plant in Skopje, Macedonia, which received the 2009 award for “Best Bottling Company”.

Image of the Coca Cola bottling plant in Edmonton, North London.
Courtesy of www.guardian.co.uk

At the bottling factory, the formula is diluted with water, before adding the other ingredients such as the sweetener and carbonating it with CO2. Although sugar is used as a sweetener in most parts of the world, in the United States high-fructose corn syrup is used as not only is it more readily available, but also as there are high tariffs on imported sugar. The finished product is about 10% sweetener.

The Coca Cola containers are made in separate factories. They are either plastic bottles, cans or glass bottles. These are brought to the bottling factory. The bottles are filled and labelled, while the cans have already been decorated with the logo. 1,700 cans can be filled a minute, twice as fast as plastic bottles. They are then packaged in various numbers and distributed.