Soft Drinks

Constar International Inc. shares lost 29 percent of their value yesterday after the Philadelphia producer of plastic bottles for food, soft drinks and other beverages reported a $4 million second-quarter loss. The stock closed at $6.29, down $2.61. The company was spun off from Crown Holdings Inc. in November at $12 a share. The company said results were poor, in part, because of price reductions agreed to in contract extensions with customers, such as PepsiCo Inc. Constar expected the lower prices to lead to higher volumes, which failed to materialize, because of unseasonably cool weather in May and June and other factors.

Congratulations to School District CEO Paul Vallas and the School Reform Commission for deciding that selling sodas to public school students is not in the children's best interest. By removing unhealthy drinks from vending machines, we will be taking a positive step in promoting healthy nutritional choices in our schools. The sale of commercially prepared food and drinks in schools can negatively affect children's diets, because many are high in calories, added sugars and fat, and low in nutrients.

Three years after rejecting Coke's lucrative bid to be the sole beverage provider to Philadelphia schools, the financially strapped district is again scouting for an exclusive contract. District officials requested - and are reviewing - bids from several companies vying to become the exclusive supplier of 700 beverage vending machines in city schools. Among the bids under review are those from Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and the Pepsi Bottling Group. "We want to maximize the revenue from vending suppliers," said Kimberly A. Sangster, the district's chief procurement officer.

They are not quite ready to replace Billy Penn with a Pepsi bottle, but the folks in City Hall think there is money to be made hawking everything from soft drinks to computer software. Street administration officials said yesterday that they planned to hire a firm to look into whether Philadelphia should allow private companies to use the city's name to market their products. For a price, then, Dr Pepper could call itself the official drink of Philadelphia, or Nike could slap its name on any number of recreation centers.

Hospitalization of kids for obesity up dramatically Overweight children are being hospitalized at dramatically rising rates for diabetes, sleep apnea and other diseases that obesity causes or worsens. Obesity accounts for a tiny proportion of all child hospitalizations, scientists say. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday that "a disturbing increase" in the numbers has more than tripled hospital costs related to childhood obesity in the past 20 years, reaching $127 million.

With Carnegie Lake's windswept water rolling and swaying like California surf beneath them, Mary Obidinski and Catherine Humblet decided it was time to make some waves of their own. The finals of the Zurich Rowing World Cup - the first World Cup event ever in the United States - were eight events old at that point. And even though the field in this first post-Olympic year was as watered-down as the refreshment stands' soft drinks, no American had yet crossed the finish line first.

The school cola wars appear to be winding down. Hit by a barrage of criticism linking soda consumption to childhood obesity and other ailments, the Coca-Cola Co. said yesterday that it would seek to end the hard sell of soft drinks in schools. The company said it would offer healthier drinks as well as sodas in school vending machines; cover its giant logos on the machines; and advise bottlers against pushing exclusive contracts at schools. PepsiCo Inc. also is rethinking how it markets its products in schools, said Larry Jabbonsky, a PepsiCo spokesman.

U.S. soft-drink sales were nearly flat last year, yet Cott Corp., the world's fourth-largest soda company, saw its U.S. sales rise 6 percent. Some analysts are confident that, by gaining market share, Cott can sustain such growth even if carbonated soft-drink sales do not return to the fast growth they experienced in the early 1990s. The Toronto-based company dominates the store-brand beverage market in the United States with 60 percent of the market, and counts Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Safeway Inc. and other large U.S. retailers among its customers.

You may think you've never eaten tamarind, but if you've ever sprinkled a steak with Worcestershire sauce or sipped a cola, you've tasted tamarind. It is one of the "secret" ingredients in Worcestershire sauce, has long been used to flavor colas and other soft drinks, and is an ingredient in a number of prepared sauces, such as Jamaican Pickapeppa. In fact, tamarind is popular almost everywhere in the world but the United States - where we eat it quite a bit without knowing. Tamarind is the fruit pod of a large and beautiful evergreen tree in the legume family.

Despite the financial incentives of allowing soft-drink companies, such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi, exclusive advertising and vending rights in its schools, the Wissahickon school board has decided that there is no place for the controversial practice here. In a 5-2 vote Monday night, the board said such a deal - which could bring in funds for school projects or equipment but would obligate the district to advertise a particular product - was now prohibited, although companies may still donate items bearing logos if the superintendent approves and nothing is required in exchange.