Breaking News on Beverage Technology & Markets

On your radar > Energy Drinks

News in brief

Canned mouse would have turned to jelly: PepsiCo

2 commentsBy Ben Bouckley, 05-Jan-2012

Related topics: Energy Drinks, Regulation & Safety

PepsiCo is fighting claims by a consumer that he found a dead mouse in a Mountain Dew can, with a scientist testifying that there is no way the creature could have passed the bottling process intact.

Err...canned mouse anyone?

Err...canned mouse anyone?

According to the New York Daily News, PepsiCo’s witness added that the mouse would have dissolved into a jelly-like substance instead.

Wisconsin man Ronald Ball claimed he found the mouse in the vivid green soda after taking a sip of the drink bought from a vending machine in 2009, and is seeking damages of $50,000.

According to the Madison Record, Ball claimed he sent the mouse to Pepsi, but that the company then destroyed the evidence. The firm denies Ball’s claims, and is moving to have the case dismissed.

'Unleash the beast'

In April last year, 19-year-old Iowa man Vitaliy Sulzhik claimed to have found a dead mouse in a can of Monster Energy Drink (which was somewhat ironic, given the firm's slogan (above), and his lawyer sent the product to MDE Forensic Engineering Consulting and Laboratories.

The Seattle lab cut open the can and took photos (one is pictured), and conducted forensic tests on Sulzhik’s behalf; he later filed a product liability suit against PepsiCo.

You can hear Sulzhik and his lawyer discuss the incident in this video

2 comments (Comments are now closed)

mouse

Reminds me when I was at school, a long time ago, a boy brought in a dead mouse, buried it under his food and then shouted: "There is a mouse in my food, sir." Nobody believed him!

Report abuse

Posted by dennis hoare
10 January 2012 | 12h11

Irony

Ironic that Sulzhik was drinking a Mountain Dew in the linked video.

Report abuse

Posted by Chaseme
05 January 2012 | 16h30

Supplier Webinars