Lawsuit: Dead Rat In Frozen Lemonade Gave Customer PTSD

Two years ago, a woman in New Hampshire preparing for a party poured out a can of frozen Minute Maid concentrated lemonade and found a festive flavoring aid already inside the can. It was a dead, decomposing rat and a bunch of its maggot buddies. A rat? How does a rat end up in a container of frozen lemonade? The woman’s case went to trial this week, and now it’s up to a jury.

Update: The jury came back with their decision.

Minute Maid parent company Coca-Cola counters that such a thing is impossible. Its quality control is too strict, they claim, so the rat didn’t come from their plant. The woman also sued the supermarket where she bought the item, Hannaford, and the grocery distributor that brought it to Hannaford.

She claims that the experience was frightening, and the courier that Coca-Cola promised to send to pick up the fat from her freezer didn’t show up for a week. Now, she claimed at trial, she isn’t able to enter a frozen food aisle without symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

NH Woman Claims PTSD After Finding Rat In Frozen Lemonade [CBS Boston]

(If you crave more stories about unexpected animals in packaged food, check out our “free frogs” tag.)

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