What does a Typical 12 ounce can of soda contains?

Answer 1

A typical soda, can or bottle contains:

• water
• carbon dioxide (CO2) for the fizz.
• A sweetener such corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup or regular sugar (sucrose). A diet drink will instead have a version of Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), Sucralose (Splenda) or some other artificial sweetener. Some countries still use cyclamates.
• Artificial or natural flavor to make it taste like the flavor it is labeled and not necessarily the item labeled. i.e. orange soda will probably not have any ingredients from an orange in it.
• Caramel coloring or other artificial or natural colors to make it look like the flavor it is labeled but not necessarily from the labeled flavor. i.e. A red cherry color may actually be cochineal extract from the cochineal, a insect.
• Any of citric acid, sodium citrate, phosphoric acid, etc to give the drink some sort of tartness or mellowness not supplied by the flavorings.
• Some preservative such as sodium benszate.