No, Coke Has NOT Recalled Dasani Water Due to Parasite Contamination

Outline:
Circulating report claims that Coca-Cola has recalled its Dasani water products across the United States after a ‘clear parasite worm’  was found in bottles. The report claims that several hundred people have been hospitalised as a result of drinking the contaminated water.




Brief Analysis:
The claims in the report are  false. Coca-Cola has not issued any recall of Dasani water and there are no credible reports about such a contamination. The image in the report depicts an  eel larva, not a parasite. The bogus story comes from a fake-news website that churns out clickbait nonsense disguised as  genuine news reports.

Example:
Coca-Cola Recalls Dasani Water After Clear Parasite Worm Was Found In Bottles Across U.S.NEWS 4 – If you purchase/drink Dasani water you might want to listen up. There has been a major recall by the Coca-Cola company today after several thousand bottles of their drinking water was found to be contaminated with a parasite. It has sent several hundred people to the hospital and is responsible for parasitic symptoms such as fever, rash, vomiting and stomach bloating.

Detailed Analysis:
According to a report that has been circulating via social media since early April 2016, Coca-Cola has recalled Dasani Water products in the United States after clear parasite worms were discovered in Dasani bottles. The report claims that several thousand bottles of the water were found to be contaminated. Supposedly, hundreds of people became very ill and had to be hospitalised after consuming the contaminated water. The report features an image  that supposedly depicts the transparent ‘worms’.

However, the claims in the report are untrue.  Coca-Cola has not recalled Dasani Water and there are no credible reports supporting the claim that the product has been contaminated in any way.  Nor are there any credible reports  about illnesses and  hospitalisations caused by drinking Dasani.  Of course, if true, the recall  would have been widely covered by mainstream news outlets around the world and Coke would have issued official recall notices to alert members of the public.

The false  report comes from a clickbait fake-news website called ‘News4KTLA’. The site has published several other utterly false stories that it has disguised as news in an effort to trick people into believing and sharing  its content. Unlike many other fake-news sites,  News4KTLA does not include any disclaimer that might alert readers that the material it publishers is fiction rather than real news.

Coke bottling company Coca-Cola UNITED has  debunked the false claims in a post on its website, noting in part:

In communications between Greg Babb,  Corporate Director of Quality and Sustainability for Coca-Cola UNITED,  and The Coca-Cola Company regarding the information, The Coca-Cola Company confirmed, “The source of this false and inflammatory information about our brand is a hoax news website. There is no recall of DASANI being conducted in the U.S., so please confidently continue to enjoy DASANI bottled water.”

Moreover, the ‘clear parasite worms’ depicted in the report’s featured image are neither parasites nor worms. They are, in fact,  Leptocephalus, the  transparent larvae of eels.

Sharing  false and nonsensical warnings like the one discussed here serves only to spread fear and alarm for no good reason. If this bogus message comes your way, please do not share it with others.  And let the person who posted the message know that the claims are untrue.

It is always wise to check any strange or unusual ‘news’ stories that come your way before sharing them.  Searching a news portal such as Google News will usually reveal of a circulating story is true.