Thousands of people are said to have developed serious symptoms after drinking Coca-Cola's lactose-free milk product, which the company claimed smelled like “poop” and “rotten eggs.”
For the past two months, customers of Fairlife, which makes high-protein, lactose-free milk, have complained on social media of episodes of diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps hours after drinking the product.
Many of the reddit, tick tock Facebook users also said they detected a putrid odor that resembled “poop” or “rotten eggs” after opening the container.
A website that tracks food poisoning iwaspoisoned.comhas recorded 103 brand complaints in the last 45 days. In contrast, the average number of complaints regarding Fairlife in the past year was six.
“Based on our experience, the actual impact is likely to be much larger,” Patrick Quaid, the site’s founder, told the Post on Thursday.
Quaid estimated that “thousands of consumers” may have been made sick by the milk.
Fairlife, described as an “ultra-filtered” high-protein, low-sugar milk, has a long shelf life if unopened and is sold at major retail chains such as Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, and Kroger.
The Food and Drug Administration did not return a request for comment on the suspected food poisoning.
Fairlife denied there was any problem with the milk.
“We take all consumer concerns seriously and can confirm that there are no food safety issues or recalls related to Fairlife products,” the company said in an email to the Post.
Consumers who complained to the company were told the odor was “normal” and the product was safe.
Graphic accounts from offended consumers paint a different picture.
A woman from Villa Park, Illinois, wrote on iwaspoisoned.com about the New Year's Day game. . “Every time I stood up, I felt dizzy and felt like I was going to pass out.”
“It (literally) smells like poop,” a consumer in Manassas, Virginia, posted on iwaspoisoned.com this month.
A customer claimed to have experienced vomiting and diarrhea after drinking 2% low-fat Fairlife milk.
Lizzie Chicarello, a nurse in Massachusetts, said she suffered from diarrhea and nausea for 24 hours after drinking Fairlife skim milk earlier this month.
“I knew right away it was food poisoning,” Chicarello, who has been buying the brand for several years, told the Post.
“@Fairlife I wonder when they're going to issue a recall for the batch 26-207 products that are making so many people sick, including me.Even though your company claims the milk is safe, a rotten egg odor in the milk is not normal,” says Chicarello. Posted in X January 13th.
The complaints target a variety of Fairlife dairy products, from skim milk to whole milk protein shakes to chocolate milk.
This isn't the first time the 12-year-old brand has been controversial.
Coca-Cola and other parties reportedly paid $21 million to settle a 2019 lawsuit alleging that Fairlife products falsely claimed to be made from humanely treated cows. It is said that they agreed to pay US$. report In 2022.
The company's distributor was the subject of an undercover investigation by an animal rights group that said calves were being “brutally beaten” at an Indiana dairy farm.
Fairlife told Food Dive in 2022 that it had “significantly enhanced its animal welfare programs and processes since 2019,” including through camera surveillance, third-party animal welfare advisory committees, and an increased number of unannounced audits at supply farms. I did,” he said.
