One of the more disgusting news stories doing the rounds at the moment concerns a lawsuit against Pepsi claiming that a dead mouse was found in a can of Mountain Dew. Pepsi’s defence? The mouse would have dissolved and turned into jelly, apparently. That’s a disgusting thought and a weird legal strategy, but what’s less clear is whether it would happen in Australia.
Picture by Callan Fraser via Mountain Dew AU
The reason? Mountain Dew in Australia is a rather different beast than its US counterpart. While both have an effectively identical kilojoule count (500Kj in a 250ml glass), the US version contains caffeine, while the Australian version doesn’t. And while the American drink follows typical US practice in using high fructose corn syrup as its main sweetener, the Australian version uses sugar. Whether these differences would hinder the drink’s alleged mouse-dissolving properties is a tricky chemical question, but we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
In any case, as we’ve frequently advised when it comes to drinking, water is a much better choice than soft drink in any form. Water will not dissolve a mouse, though it won’t stop it rotting.
Pepsi Says Mountain Dew Can Dissolve Mouse Carcasses [The Atlantic]
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