The Glade 4.0

FDA: Frog, not mouse, found in soda can

By ANNE GEGGIS
Staff Writer

The laboratory results are in, and what an Ormond Beach couple believed was a mouse found in a can of Diet Pepsi on July 23 as they grilled dinner is actually a frog or toad, according to a report from the Food and Drug Administration.

The summary report made available Wednesday doesn't draw any conclusions about when the frog or toad was able to get into the can, packaged at an Orlando Pepsi bottling plant, however.

Amy DeNegri said she saw her husband take a swig of the amphibian-flavored drink immediately after he opened it and the absence of internal organs in the creature noted in the report proves to her it was in the can before then. She said she and her husband, through their attorney, are going to ask the FDA to return the remnants of what they found so more tests can be done.

The creature's internal organs, she said, "probably disintegrated from the acidity in the soda."

Pepsi spokesman Jeff Dahncke said Pepsi stands by its previous statement that it is "virtually impossible" for this to happen, given the speed of production and the quality control at its Orlando bottling plant where the can originated. The plant produces 1,250 cans per minute.

"There never has been a single instance when a claim of this nature has been traced back to a manufacturing issue," Dahncke said in a prepared statement.

He also said an FDA inspection of the plant from Aug. 4 to Aug. 11 found no cause for concern -- an assertion FDA officials confirmed.

"We have not determined when or how the contamination occurred," said Siobhan DeLancey, FDA spokeswoman.

DeNegri, who said in July that she and her husband, Fred, had no interest in suing over the incident, now says she believes they are entitled to some compensation.

"We already have gone for legal advice because of the way Pepsi handled themselves," DeNegri said, complaining that Pepsi officials are calling them liars.

At the time of the incident, DeNegri said her husband took a long drink and then stopped drinking because it tasted funny. When he poured the rest of it out, a pink, slimy ribbon of something came out and couldn't be shaken out because it appeared attached to something too large to come through the can's opening. DeNegri described it as similar to the sac that's around kittens when they are born.

The can was part of a case of Diet Pepsi the couple purchased at Sam's Club in Daytona Beach. Another can, the only one remaining from that case after the foreign object was discovered, was tested and found to have no contaminants.

That was frakkin disgusting.

Did you see the picture?

/barf

There was a picture? How'd I miss that?