Last week, a five year old in Hawaii[1] spit out her favorite drink when it tasted funny. Her uncle, James Stoddard, cut open the pouch of unexpired Capri Sun to find floating bits of brown mold.


"I was just grossed out, disgusted by it," Stoddard told Hawaii News Now. "You never think anything of it until it hits this close to home, and when it hits home that's when you actually think, 'Oh my god, I don't want to buy Capri Sun products anymore.'"


Kraft, Capri Sun's parent company, is so used to the complaint, however, that they already have a disclaimer posted on their website:


"Although it’s extremely rare, because Capri Sun does not contain any artificial preservatives, something many moms appreciate, it is possible for food mold to grow inside a pouch[2] that has been punctured and is exposed to air. What usually forms is a common food mold similar to what might grow on fruit or bread. In the past, experts have told us there are no significant or long-term health effects associated with consuming this type of mold, though we understand how bad of an experience it can be for a child to drink."


While it's true that, in the grand scheme of Capri Sun sales, the number of reported mold incidents is relatively low, discussion of the issue on social media seems to be escalating[3] as do the number of reported cases in the local news. In July, it was a pregnant mother in Illinois[4] . In June it was another family in Hawaii[5] , and before that it was two families in Virginia Beach[6] , one in North Carolina[7] and one in Philadelphia[8] .


Some customers even claim they have found worms in their Capri Sun pouches, but Kraft insists it is probably just the slimy, but innocuous mold[9] .


In May, Live Science reported that five different types of mold[10] have been identified in Capri Sun pouches. "While the findings have an "ick" factor, the fungi probably aren't harmful to most people," according to Kathleen Dannelly, an associate professor of microbiology at Indiana State University.


Kraft Foods has already invested more than $2 million in order to improve the pouches[11] , according to MSN News, but it still can't guarantee mold will not grow even in unexpired packages. It seems as if the company is willing to bet that mothers prefer the chance of mold over the certainty of preservatives even though the juice still contains high fructose corn syrup and 16 grams of sugar in each pack[12] .


If you're worried about finding mold in your Capri Suns, Kraft advises that you squeeze the pouches to ensure there are no small holes or punctures before enjoying them.



Earlier on HuffPost:


Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL


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  • Blueberries That Aren't Blueberries


    What goes best with fake maple syrup? Fraudulent pancakes, of course. Read the tiny print that says “with imitation blueberries”, and you'll be dying to hear how to fake a fruit. Here’s the secret: take some dextrose, fractionated palm kernel oil, flour, citric acid, cellulose gum, maltodextrin, artificial flavors, two types of blue, one part red, and you’re set. Ingredients: Enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, may contain malted barley flour), imitation blueberry pieces (dextrose, fractionated palm kernel oil, enriched flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], citric acid, cellulose gum, maltodextrin, artificial flavor, red 40, blue 1, blue 2), sugar, soy flour, leavening (sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate, sodium aluminum sulfate), canola or soybean oil, dextrose, salt, mono-diglycerides, guar gum, artificial flavor.




  • Butter That's Not Butter


    Serve this on your popcorn and you'll have people believing it's not butter in no time. "Butter" spray is as artificial as it gets. Ingredients: Water, soybean oil, salt, sweet cream buttermilk, xanthan gum, soy lecithin, polysorbate 60, lactic acid, (potassium sorbate, calcium disodium EDTA) used to protect quality, natural and artificial flavor, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).




  • Cheese That Isn't Cheese


    Cheese faking is an art nearly as popular as cheesemaking. All kinds of brands make not-cheese, but the classic is Easy Cheese. This “pasteurized cheese snack” is full of fillers, oil, and emulsifiers. The ingredients are so un-cheeselike that lobbyers tried to force Kraft to call its cheese products “embalmed cheese” -- but the government settled on “processed cheese,” according to the <em>Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cheese of the World</em>. Ingredients: Whey, cheddar cheese (milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), canola oil, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, milk, contains less than 2% of sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, salt, calcium phosphate, lactic acid, sodium alginate, autolyzed yeast extract, sorbic acid as a preservative, cheese culture, enzymes, apocarotenal (color), annatto (color).




  • Chocolate That's Not Chocolate


    A chocolate chip cookie, by any other name, is a total red flag. See chocolate-chip-flavored cookies. Why is it called "flavored"? To be called chocolate, the FDA requires that a food contain cocoa butter, and these use cheaper vegetable oils as substitutes. And yes -- that partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil is code for trans fat. Better bake your own. (Try our <a href="http://www.prevention.com/food/cook/healthier-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe" target="_blank">recipe for guilt-free chocolate chip cookies</a> made with whole-wheat flour.) Ingredients: Enriched flour bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, chocolate flavored chips (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa, cocoa processed with alkali, dextrose, soy lecithin), partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, water, contains 2% or less of: molasses, wheat protein isolate, baking powder (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate), salt, eggs, artificial flavor, nonfat milk.




  • Eggs That Aren't Eggs


    Eggs are one ingredient. But substituting them takes 20. Thankfully, eggs top the ingredient list, but it goes downhill from there: the very next ingredient is a proprietary blend of “natural flavor” to conjure up egginess. Ingredients: Egg whites (99%), less than 1% of the following: natural flavor, color (includes beta carotene), spices, salt, onion powder, vegetable gums (xanthan gum, guar gum). Vitamins and minerals: calcium (sulfate), iron (ferric phosphate), vitamin E (alpha tocopherol acetate), zinc (sulfate), calcium pantothenate, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B1 (thiamine mononitrate), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin D3, biotin.




  • Ice Cream That's Not Ice Cream


    Gone are the good ol' days of ice cream. Now, we're forced to shovel down spoonfuls of Frozen Dairy Dessert, which can't legally be called ice cream without containing at least 10% milk fat, according to this depressing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/dining/remembering-when-breyers-ice-cream-was-you-know-ice-cream.html?_r=1&" target="_blank"><em>New York Times</em></a> lament of ice cream lost. What Breyer's Extra Creamy Vanilla Frozen Dairy Dessert (phew) does contain is plenty of corn syrup, gums, and whey. Ingredients: Milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, whey, mono and diglycerides, carob bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, natural flavor, annatto (for color), vitamin A palmitate, Tara gum.




  • Peanut Butter That's Not Peanut Butter


    Peanut-flavored sugar oil doesn't have quite the same ring, but it's far more accurate a name than this honey roast peanut butter from Peter Pan. What shouldn't contain added sugar has at least two types, plus partially hydrogenated oil (code for trans fat). Ingredients: Peanut butter [roasted peanuts, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oils (cottonseed and rapeseed), molasses, salt, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil], sugar, and honey.




  • Potatoes That Aren't Potatoes


    Meet the mashed-potato-in-a-box, whose first ingredient is, thankfully, potatoes. (Dehydrated potato flakes, to be exact.) But they also come with preservatives, emulsifiers, flavorings, and even trans fat. At that point, good luck trying to convince anyone of potato-realness. Ingredients: Potato flakes (sodium bisulfite, BHA, and citric acid added to protect color and flavor), contains 2% or less of: Monoglycerides, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, natural flavor, sodium acid pyrophosphate, butteroil.




  • Tea That's Not Tea


    Tea=tea+water. It's the easiest recipe on earth, yet companies so often seem to lose sight of what they're brewing. See SoBe, a PepsiCo company, that manages to cram 11 ingredients and no less than five weird extracts into their green tea. All in all, that's 21 grams of sugar and zero green tea—in our book, an extract does not a green tea make. Ingredients: Filtered water, sugar, natural flavor, citric acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), green tea extract, caramel color, Reb A (purified stevia extract), guarana seed extract, panax ginseng root extract, rose hips extract. <strong><a href="http://www.prevention.com/food/smart-shopping/19-foods-arent-food?cm_mmc=Huffington_Post-_-19%20Foods%20That%20Arent%20Food-_-Article-_-19%20foods%20that%20arent%20food" target="_blank">To keep reading more, click here</a>.</strong>





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