A man that was sickened when he found a dead mouse in a can of Mountain Dew soda he was drinking from has filed a personal injury lawsuit, but the soda company, PepsiCo, has given a lengthy argument stating that the occurrence is highly improbable, as reported by the Digital Journal, ABC News, The Toronto Star and the Madison Record.
The victim, R.B., claims that the incident happened in November 2009. He had opened a Mountain Dew soda and quickly detected a foulness in its flavor. From there he emptied the contents of the can – which he had purchased via a vending machine at his place of work – into a Styrofoam cup. It was at this time that he allegedly spied the dead mouse.
As the case is headed to court, lawyers for PepsiCo have claimed that R.B.’s allegations are impossible.
PepsiCo has an expert, L.D.M., that has agreed with their assertion that a mouse couldn’t have been in the soda can prior to its sealing – because the ingredients in a Mountain Dew would have caused the mouse’s body to disintegrate well before the can made it into the vending machine.
L.D.M., who has a PhD. in veterinary pathology said, “If a mouse is submerged in a fluid with the acidity of Mountain Dew, between four days to at most seven days in the fluid, the mouse will have no calcium in its bones and bony structures” and “…the mouse's abdominal structure will rupture within that time period.”
After 30 days in the soda can “all of the mouse's structures will have disintegrated to the point the structures (excepting possibly a portion of the tail) will not be recognizable and, therefore, the animal itself will not be recognizable. Instead, after 30 days in the fluid, the mouse will have been transformed into a ‘jelly-like’ substance.”
PepsiCo claims that it was at approximately the 74-day mark when R.B. would have opened his Mountain Dew can. The information is based on the can being bottled in a St. Louis facility and then moved to the vending machine.
PepsiCo further alleges that R.B. fails to have the “evidence” to prove that the mouse was in the can when PepsiCo sealed it in St. Louis.
L.D.M. stated that the mouse he tested could not have been in the can for that length of time – that it wasn’t scientifically possible – and he also determined that the mouse was approximately four weeks old, or less, at the time of its death.
R.B. said that after the incident he contacted PepsiCo. A representative from the company then came and removed the sample for testing.
Eddie Unsell, R.B.’s lawyer, said, “Either his (L.D.M.) science is wrong or they lied to him about when it was bottled. This is the best case like this I have ever seen. He (R.B.) had witnesses who saw him walk over to the machine, buy the soda, open it and consume it and become violently ill.”
Unsell claims that R.B. did not immediately file the lawsuit after the incident – R.B. filed after PepsiCo accused him of lying.
R.B. is asking for $50,000 in damages.
Contact a personal injury lawyer if you have fallen ill from a food product. Product liability is one arm of personal injury lawsuits, and filing often brings about change, as well as monetary awards.