Does mixing Pepsi and Polo Mentos produce cyanide and death?

Rumours are spreading across social media that warn against drinking Pepsi after eating POLO MENTOS as it leads to “instant death” since the mixture turns into cyanide.

What’s true: As it is well documented, fizzy drinks like Pepsi (or Coca Cola) produce a significant reaction when mixed with foods like Polo’s or Mentos sweets.

What’s false: That the mixture produces cyanide, or that is can result in serious health consequences if consumed together.

Warnings against drinking fizzy drinks like Coca Cola, Diet Coke or Pepsi mixed with MENTOS sweets or POLO sweets have been spreading the Internet for years in various incarnations. The below version has taken hold in 2016…

Consumption of PEPSI after consuming POLO MENTOS leads to instant death as this mixture turns into cynide poison.Don’t drink Pesi/Cola after eating polo mentos. plz pass this information to as many people as possible specially children.

The warnings differ greatly depending which version you happen to stumble across. Many versions simply warn against drinking fizzy drinks like Pepsi and Mentos, citing a “severe reaction” that could have negative health consequences. Other versions like the one above go further and claim the mixture produces a cyanide mixture resulting in death.

None of the rumours are particularly accurate. It is well documented – especially via homemade YouTube videos – that mixing these ingredients produces a bubbling reaction as a result of the sudden release of carbon dioxide, but what has not been proven or demonstrated is that consuming the two would produce any kind of effect that could kill – or seriously injure – anybody.

Additionally, the claim that Pepsi and Polo or Mentos produces cyanide is simply nonsensical. If a dangerous cyanide mix was so easy to create, it would be common knowledge and certainly a well-documented modus operandi for many deaths and injuries worldwide.

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But alas, we could find so single documented case of any serious injury by mixing Pepsi and Polo/Mentos. There have been plenty of claims that such injuries have occurred all of which have turned out to be hoaxes, including a claim that two children from Brazil died as a result of the “deadly” concoction. If serious injury or death was a consequence of these actions, it would be well documented across the Internet. But it isn’t.

Popular debunking TV show Mythbusters on Discovery even investigated the claims –

As the soda warms while traveling to the stomach, the gas continues to vaporize. Any remaining might cause your stomach to expand, but it isn’t enough to spark a dangerous gassy rebellion if you chase the soda with a pack of Mentos.

The warning is simply another version of this long running hoax. It’s not true.