Here’s yet another item about something weird showing up in a product that isn’t the best P.R. for a corporation, via AFP:
A Florida man who cracked open an ice cold can of Pepsi found dismembered remains of a frog, the US Food and Drug Administration said today.
“It has been verified, and it was indeed a frog,” Charles Watson, a spokesman at the US food inspection authority, said from Florida, noting that the animal had been identified by an FDA lab.
Fred DeNegri of Ormond Beach told CNN television that he was taken aback by the “disgusting” blob he was not expecting in his drink.
Mr DeNegri bought the drink at a Sam’s Club wholesale grocer, CNN said.
The FDA has launched an investigation into how the incident occurred
.
CNN:
DeNegri was grilling in his backyard tiki bar in Ormond Beach, Florida, when he popped open a can of Diet Pepsi, took a big gulp and started gagging, his wife, Amy, said.
He emptied out the can down a sink but something heavy remained inside. He shook the can until something resembling “pink linguini” slid out, followed by “dark stuff,” Amy DeNegri said.
But the heavy object inside the can never came out, she said.
“It was disgusting,” said Amy DeNegri, 54. “And now, what started out as a normal afternoon in our tiki bar has blown up into this crazy thing.”
The DeNegris took pictures before calling poison control and the FDA, which showed up the next day to examine the can in question and collect it for lab testing.
The couple received a copy of the completed report last week from the Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Affairs, which concluded the foreign matter appeared to be a frog or a toad.
“The animal was lacking internal organs normally found in the abdominal and thoracic cavity,” the report notes.
A second, closed can from the same 36-pack of Diet Pepsi from Sam’s Club, was also submitted for testing, according to Amy DeNegri. No abnormalities were detected, the report states.
The FDA also conducted an investigation at the local Pepsi bottling plant in Orlando from August 4 to 11 and “did not find any adverse conditions or association to this problem,” spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said.
“We have not determined when or how the contamination occurred,” DeLancey said in an e-mail.
The couple is looking into legal action.
Pepsi will of course assure its customers what is obvious: 99.9999 percent of the cans of Pepsi are just fine. But it’s likely to get the comedians busy with new lines. A man drank some Pepsi and almost croaked…If the man drank the Pepsi he would have gotten a frog in his throat….Soft drinks have risks? I toad you so.. Pepsi:The beverage with ‘legs.”
PERSONAL NOTE: I am a huge fan of the flavor of Pepsi and have been since I was a kid. In fact, I have a can in front of me and will drink it right now. Nothing unusual…
RIVET!!
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.