Rumours that the Coca Cola Company have issued a recall on Dasani Water after a parasite worm was discovered inside bottles in the US is spreading online.
The rumours also claim that hundreds of people have been hospitalised because of the parasite.
The rumours have appeared on a number of “health” and “lifestyle” blogs, many of which promote alternative remedies. However the original story appears to have originally come from a website called News4KTLA.com.
A portion of that story reads as follows –
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.
An image of what appears to be a transparent worm-like creature (image above) is used to illustrate these stories.
However, the entire story appears to be a work of fiction. For starters, the site that published the story – News4KTLA.com – isn’t a legitimate news outlet despite looking like one. A quick glance at the homepage reveals an array of different fake news stories.
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Additionally, any major recall of Coca Cola products that happened as a result of hundreds of people being hospitalised is inevitably going to get plenty of mainstream media coverage. However no mainstream media outlets have covered the story, only fake news websites and a number of low-level blogs.
Finally, the Coca Cola Bottling Company – the largest private bottler for the Coca Cola Company – have dismissed the claims on their website, saying…
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.
In case you’re wondering, the “parasite” used to illustrate the article actually isn’t a parasite at all. It’s a Leptocephalus, a small, transparent eel larva. From what we can see, there have been no reports of them ever being found in any Coca Cola drinks, including Dasani Water.
The entire story is a hoax.