Obama, Pepsico, aborted babies & conservapedia

[reverendjeremiah]

Conservapedia is always quick to jump on the conspiracy theory train:

http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page

PepsiCo ignores shareholders' concerns by using aborted baby kidneys for flavor enhancement, claiming “ordinary business operations.” Obama's SEC ruled in favor of Pepsico's use of Senomyx to test and produce artificial flavor enhancers. [3]

Using aborted baby cells huh? Sounds REALLY far out there. I did some searching and found that a vast majority of sites pushing this story where religious ones. My skeptic flag popped up on me and I decided to do some researching for my own

Lets see what snopes says:

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?p=1585607

Snopes says this is the source material used for the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/truth-behind-oklah...00064.html

There is a new bill being introduced by Oklahoma Republican State Sen. Ralph Shortey with the explicit purpose of outlawing the use of fetuses in the production or supplementation of food products. This may sound like a demented joke or a satirical story, but it is actually true for the state of Oklahoma.

This began in 2010 when a pro-life group called "Children of God for Life" accused Senomyx of using aborted fetal cells in its products and testing. Companies like PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, and Nestle as well as Campbell Soup have been partnered with Senomyx for the purpose of enhancing the flavor of their product. It is the claim of "Children of God" that Senomyx has been using a 37-year-old cell culture called HEK-293 (healthy embryo kidney #293) for flavor testing and possibly to supplement the product directly.

These accusation never found their way to court for lack of proof, but this did not stop the active wish of "Children of God" to boycott stem cell research based on these claims. Appealing to the Christian Right anti-abortion group and supporters, this new bill appears to be tailored around this accusation by Shortly. Additionally, further addendum has been made to prevent further research regarding stem cells.

Senomyx in collaboration with drug researchers Aurora Biosciences (non-pdf version of link) did a series of neurobiological tests with human, rats, and even specifically HEK-293 regarding "human receptors for sweet and umami taste". This was a study sent in to the National Academy of Sciences in December of 2001 and approved February of 2002.

The experiment itself revolved around the recognition of a wide range of natural and artificial sweeteners, which explains the presence of a pharmaceutical research facility. The use of HEK-293 is in part related to the taste receptors ability to detect bitter, associated with poisons and toxins.

The conditions of these tests have not actually violated embryonic and stem cell protocols set by the law, nor has Senomyx personally used these methods for taste testing foods or products of their subsidiaries such as PepsiCo, Kraft, and others; nor have they introduced embryonic material to the foods for flavor. The only case that they had any relation to HEK-293 was in presenting artificial sweeteners to the drug researchers, Aurora Bioscience.