Coke’s Dirty – I’m giving up the drink from today

I got up this morning and opened a 1L coke bottle. As soon as I opened the cap, it smelled funny.. almost acidic. When I started pouring the coke into a glass, I noticed some weird particles floating inside it. I looked into the bottle and I could see lot more floating particles.

I took a filter and poured the contents out into a container and this is what turned up.

I have no idea what it is.. felt like animal fat/rotten flesh/shit. It was smelling very bad as well. Called up my local store and the person there said he would get back to me. He came over and called the Coke folks. It turns out the bottle is 6 months beyond the expiry date and they say they are not at all liable since its past the expiry. It seems coke supplied the expired bottle to my local store and he did not check the expiry on it. ( so eventually the local store is at fault).

I still want to know how some *semi-solid* substance got into a sealed coke bottle. Anyway beware and watch before you drink. The whole thing makes me wanna puke

More disgusting pics here

29 Comments

  1. Anonymous · February 4, 2004 Reply

    it only happens in india, if this were to happen in the US< coke would have taken a major hit on wallstreet, probably even close to bankruptcy. email these pictures to your fav. newspapers, the times of india, get the media involved. the question here is, if coke has double standards when it comes to sanitization, do they take it lightly in a poorer country, are lives not worth the same. i understand its india, if yo have the time, sue their asses.

  2. fox2mike · February 4, 2004 Reply

    Sheesh. They should be sued for this!!! & this on the day of the Parlimentary Committee report on Cold Drinks pushing for stringent measures for Quality Control…

  3. Anonymous · February 4, 2004 Reply

    has anyone ever checked coke’s expiry ?

    I wonder how many of us have checked the expiry of a coke bottle before driking it …
    i wonder how coke expects us to know know what the “best before” is , also if the date printed is date of manufacture or expiry !!

  4. itsjoy · February 4, 2004 Reply

    ewww!

    let the press know..

  5. sankup · February 4, 2004 Reply

    feels awful…….its a warning for all of us to look at the expiry date from now onwards……….the worst part is that it is never brought into the notice of the general public ……. no one understands the depth of this matter…….i’m pretty sure this not the first time a thing like this is happeneing…….

  6. harish_an · February 4, 2004 Reply

    hell..
    i think its not too much of an expiry date problem…i mean there is a safety period built into expiry dates…upto 2 or 3 months …this seems to be a different case…
    even if it was expired stock…unless the dealer or shopkeeper stockpiled it, its the resposibility of the manufacturer to ensure that expired stock does not remain in the market..
    also sometimes u can notice corrosion marks on normal bottles near the cap seating area…
    cant u sue them or soemthing? i remember there was a newspaper first page once of a lizard or something in a bottle of cola…
    let me see.. here it is
    http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/06/22/stories/2003062205260300.htm
    u r much better off

  7. jd_knight · February 4, 2004 Reply

    conspired expiry..!!

    not to mention, the expiry date is written in the most illegible manner!!!

  8. mmk · February 4, 2004 Reply

    Uggh

    I guess Toolz has to pick a new drink … this is uggh.

  9. vaibhav · February 4, 2004 Reply

    Sue them!

    Technically, the store is a representative of Coke as a reseller and they are supposed to take care of these things. You can very easily go to consumer court if you have the time and the inclination.

  10. herculesksp · February 5, 2004 Reply

    Ahhh, sucky!
    So what if the drink expired? Does that mean it is free to start developing shitty things within itself? In that case the particles start forming well within the expiry date so that it can manifest into a filterable size.

    Totally sucks. Does anyone know how to report this to the newspapers?

  11. admin · February 5, 2004 Reply

    Re: Uggh

    Now just him, me moving away from coka’s too

  12. mannu · February 5, 2004 Reply

    Scary. Colas aren’t good anyway. Good, I have one more reason to give up.

  13. achitnis · February 5, 2004 Reply

    Re: Uggh

    Hmmm, consider this:

    What gives you total assurance that you won’t find similar issues with other soft drinks? I have seen and read about issues like these with different beverages for decades!

    It is very unlikely that what you saw was the result of an out-of-date bottle. The contamination could have happened earlier, or (more likely) the contamination happened at distributor or dealer level – if that was a genuine bottle of Coke to begin with.

    My approach is remarkably efficient – I look for deals and promotions. Deals tend to be shortlived and easily identifiable (“250 ml more with this 2 Litre bottle!”), and harder to fake.

    If I am totally in doubt (as I always am in Delhi and roadsides), I go for cans. They are bloody hard and way too expensive to duplicate or refill.

    In terms of action – I think you should take it up with Coca Cola – send them a letter, include photographs. Let them investigate it – what if they find a major duplication racket?

    I am sticking to Coke (I don’t get what I want in Pepsi) and/or Mountain Dew.

  14. amoghavarsha · February 5, 2004 Reply

    Re: Uggh

    I double that, and also there are too many fakes these days, I’ve treid it out myself, lot of places the taste itself is weird (kida dull), so it’s easily traceable. And as a principle I check the expiry date before buying anything (let alone edible products). And it’s highly improbable that some semi-solid may have developed just beacuse of expiry.

  15. sumit_mittal · February 5, 2004 Reply

    Yeah, I’ve sent the link to TOI & HT.

  16. Anonymous · February 6, 2004 Reply

    Drink Pepsi!

    That is why I always drink pepsi!

  17. Anonymous · February 6, 2004 Reply

    Bloody colas

    I had given up carbonated soft drinks ages before this cocacola scandals. Simply because they cause indigestion to me. And I had a feeling that they are pretty badder than they actually seemed to.
    Achu

  18. sreekanth · February 7, 2004 Reply

    Nice camera man !!

    Which camera model do you have? Pictures came very nice… Planning to buy one for myself…

    And regarding cool drinks, i stopped having them one year ago itself… Take care..

  19. admin · February 7, 2004 Reply

    http://www.livejournal.com/users/kalyan/111449.html

    If you wanan get a good one go for the new nikon D70 coming out next month

  20. deepu · February 9, 2004 Reply

    Re: Uggh

    I second the motion

  21. Anonymous · February 9, 2004 Reply

    my first time to your blog. very interesting. that substance in the coke looks highly disgusting. :\

    sindhu,
    http://onewingedbutterfly.net

  22. nash_da_basher · February 17, 2004 Reply

    Yuck!

    I’m disgusted….and to think i drink these things every day…..

    *shudders*

  23. Anonymous · March 2, 2004 Reply

    What the..** ????

    Im surprised i havnt seen an article in the newspapers yet.
    I think u should be persistent and send the links again and again.
    SUE THE BASTARDS!!!!!

  24. Anonymous · July 21, 2005 Reply

    Fanta Grape

    I have been sick 3 days (cramp) I just bought Fanta on Monday. Today still sick on the stomach I go downstais to get a glass of soda and notice the 2liter bottle looks cloudy. Theres only enough left for about 1 glass. I im drinking whats left and realize that it’s very flat. I noticed this yesterday and before but though I had just put too much ice in my glass. I check the expiration date and guess what……It epired July 7th 2003. 2 years ago. Pleas etell me what I should do I dont even know who to call. Im wondering if that what my stomach ache is about. my email is mjv2000@verizon.net I live in Bowie MD

  25. admin · July 22, 2005 Reply

    Re: Fanta Grape

    I live in India, and there are not too many consumer rights here.

    Since you are in the US, you can file a class-action lawsuit againt the local store which is still stocking these old bottles.

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