Kosher-for-Passover Coca-Cola has been barred from California.

California’s new state laws on toxic chemicals are keeping kosher-for-Passover Coke out of the state, a company spokesman told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Coke was required to change the way it manufactures caramel due to the high levels of the chemical 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MEI, which California has listed as a carcinogen under its new guidelines. The manufacturing changes in California affected the kosher-for-Passover status of the cola, according to reports.

The company expects to offer the kosher-for-Passover variety of Coke in California by 2013, the newspaper reported.

The Passover version of Coke uses sugar in place of corn syrup, which is not kosher for Passover for Ashkenazi Jews.

Some kosher stores in California carried limited amounts of kosher-for-Passover Coke, which bears a yellow cap and was imported from other states. — jta