Why is the recipe for Coca-Cola still a secret? I think that given the current state of technology, it should be proficient enough to find any of the secret ingredients in Coca Cola.
Any thoughts? Can we make a 100% identical clone of Coca-Cola next week?
There are different angles this question can be answered:
A full analysis of a totally unknown mixture is painful and extremely costly. It is always helpful to know how many components you are looking for; what types etc. In this case, it is not enough to analyse the elemental composition or some pure elements, but Coke contains a lot of natural products and mixtures like caramel. Imagine how you identify (and correctly describe the production parameters) caramel in a dilute solution... Also, liquids with extremely high concentrations of sugar and different acids are unpleasant for analysis, as you often have to separate these main component, so you can identify only small components.
That being said, it is not an impossible task; there are many methods to identify e.g. natural products based on DNA traces. But consider another factor:
The recipe of Coca Cola itself worth nothing. Most probably any competent soda maker can make a drink that 99% of the consumers cannot distinguish from Coke by the taste (and could do that decades before). However they don't do because no one would buy a drink that tastes like Coca Cola, but made by others. The value is in the brand. People buy a fake Rolex if they cannot afford a real. But anyone can afford a Coke- why would buy a fake? If you are in beverage business, it is an imperative to make a drink that is somehow DIFFERENT than the other ones!
With modern technology it would be a relatively straightforward process to determine all of the ingredients in Coca Cola. It would require time and money, but very doable. My guess is that companies that compete with Coca Cola, like Pepsi, know exactly all of the ingredients in Coke. This is part of the process known as "reverse engineering" and is done all the time in industry. Pharmaceutical companies, food companies, plastics companies, any industry that uses specialized formulations do this type of chemical analysis to better understand what the "competition" is up to.
The chemical analysis is actually the easy part. However, Coke and all of these other manufacturers don't just take a list of chemicals or ingredients, mix them in a tub and then put it in the bottle. The manufacturing process is every bit as important as the ingredients and much harder to determine. For example,
and the list goes on and on. There might be 100 ingredients in the Coke formula, but there are probably over 1,000 variables in the manufacturing process, and there is no straightforward analytical method you can use to specify all of the process parameters. The ingredients is the easy part, the process is what stops someone from making a replica product - well that and legalities.
Greg hits most of the points, but there's one other angle I'd like to add:
Practical Point of View: One of the well established Coca-Cola ingredients is decocainized coca leaf extract. The DEA is, to say the least, not exactly generous in allowing this import. This effectively prevents the manufacture of a Coca-Cola equivalent anywhere in the United States. A competitor producing an exact clone of Coca-Cola but forced to import the finished product from outside the country is likely to find it difficult to significantly undercut Coca Cola's efficient distribution network.
Because it makes no sense to do so.
Even if someone uncovered the exact ingredient of Coca Cola or even if you made a Coca Cola recipe that tastes better than real Coca Cola, they wouldn't able to match the existing brand power of Coca Cola, nor the consumer's brand recognition and history with the general public. Coca Cola had poured billions and decades into making one of the most recognisable brand in the world, their brand is ingrained very deeply into the public's minds. A new competitor wouldn't able to replicate that overnight.
Of those companies that do may have the brand power to match Coca Cola and enough R&D budget to match, say PepsiCo, they wouldn't want to be seen dead advertising that they had made an exact clone of their competitors. It works better if they make and market themselves as a better drink than as a clone of a competitor. It's very likely that PepsiCo and Coca Cola knows pretty well their competitor's recipes, but they have absolutely no incentive to advertise that.
Also, even if you manage to uncover the exact composition and manufacturing process of the product, the public still won't believe it unless The Coca Cola company itself admitted that a given recipe is 100% truthful. A large percentage of the populace would always remain skeptical. Noone would give you research grant to reverse engineer Coca Cola.
Tasting isn't an objective experience, the way you experience a drink is affected by what's in your head just as much as what the chemistry of the drink. Even water from the same exact garden hose tastes different depending on how you are presented it with. For the same reason, even if you put an actual Coca Cola into a supermarket brand Cola bottle, a lot of people would still think that that bottle of Cola tastes worse than actual Coca Cola.
Finally, consumers won't buy fake products when the real products cost something like \$1-\$2 a can. If you drink a can of fake cola in public, that says something about your character, probably not in a way most people want themselves to be perceived as.
If we have high technology to find the secret of Coca-Cola then they also have high technology and money to hide it. If it would be possible then don't you think today there would hundreds of brand making the same drink?!
Till now there are many brands which have tried to clone Coca-Cola but they haven't succeeded, and that means till today they are able to hide their secret, so we don't have the technology that can find the secret of Coca Cola.
Here are some links which claim that they have cloned Coca-Cola
http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Coca-Cola-Classic-Coke-Copycat-Recipe.html
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=6017.0
http://www.instructables.com/id/Fakola-cola-clone/
You can find many more on Google, but I don't think any of them are able to find the secret of Coca-Cola, because if they had found it, then they would be billionaires and their drink would be in the market.
Coca cola recipe secret is a marketing scheme.
Obviously with LC-MS you can determine exactly what is in it. Also, many people need to know what ingredients need to be added as coca cola is made all over the planet. The idea that only 3 people know the recipe and that they can't ever board the same plane and that they have a piece of paper in a safe, all bullshit.
And does it really matter how a coke brand tastes? Brand image and marketing is all that matters. And adding a lot of sugar/sweetener.
Universities have HPC's that could probably do it in a week.
Point is, someone has to pay for it and it would be very costly and illegal. Perhaps the reason it has not been done.
