Coca-Cola Wins "Rat In The Lemonade" Lawsuit
By Sam Lewis
Jury determines beverage giant’s quality control is up to par
A jury in New Hampshire’s Hillsborough County Superior Court ruled in favor of Coca-Cola on Tuesday, Sept 24. The beverage company was brought to court in a product liability lawsuit by Colleen Grady, a 50 year old resident of Manchester, NH. Grady claims that two years ago, while preparing for a party, her friend, Denise Spenard, opened a can of frozen Minute Maid concentrated lemonade, poured it out, and not only found frozen lemonade, but additional flavorings — including a dead rat, and maggots feasting on the carcass.
Grady sued three parties including Coca-Cola, which owns Minute Maid, Hannaford Brothers supermarkets, and Victory Distributors. The plaintiff claims the July 2011 event brought her emotional distress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Grady says the symptoms of PSTD are so severe, she can’t walk through the frozen section of a grocery store without feeling them. During the trial, Grady stated she had kept the dead rat in her freezer, upon the instructions of Coca-Cola. She told the jurors it took the company’s courier service longer than a week to retrieve the rat. Grady eventually decided to hire a lawyer, and the rat was held in cold storage until it re-emerged for the trial two years later.
During Spenard’s testimony she stated she opened the can of frozen lemonade concentrate, and upon pouring it into a pitcher, saw what she thought were seeds mixed within lemonade syrup. A frozen, grey, furry body, face and snout soon followed into the pitcher. “That’s really our case,” says the plaintiff’s attorney, Vincent Wenners.
The trial lasted four days and featured employees of the Ontario, Canada, Coca-Cola plant where the lemonade was produced. Also presented as testimony during the trial were videos of the beverage plant, physicians giving interpretations of Grady’s claims of PTSD, and an insect expert teaching the courtroom about a maggot’s life cycle.
The jury’s verdict concluded Coca-Cola was in the clear. “This verdict affirms that Minute Maid beverages meet the highest quality standards at all times,” says Coca-Cola spokesperson Jennifer Cruickshank. She continued later in an email statement, “Our production process and stringent quality protocols make it virtually impossible for this situation to occur. It’s unfortunate that someone would seek to profit from such baseless allegations. We are pleased the ruling was in our favor.”
Coca-Cola may place itself on a pedestal when it comes to cleanliness and quality control standards, but that’s not to say all food and beverage manufacturing plants do the same. Just two week ago federal marshals in Virginia began the process of seizing food products from Gourmet Provisions and Royal Cup. Both companies, operating in the same facility, were found to have dirty equipment, structural defects within their confines, and active infestations of both rodents and insects. The FDA tries vigorously to keep up with inspections. Upcoming FSMA guidelines will give the FDA more policing power in those assessments of facilities, but the responsibility of cleanliness and quality control falls mainly upon the individual manufacturer. With claims of rats and insects in Coke’s product, accompanied by news of federal marshals seizing goods from other companies for the same reason, consumers can’t be blamed for wondering just how clean their food really is.