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Chemicals in Mountain Dew Can Dissolve Mouse into 'Jelly-Like' Goo

By Andrew Chow, Esq. on January 05, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

What goes into your body when you Do the Dew? Apparently, enough chemicals to dissolve a mouse into goo, Mountain Dew's manufacturers claim.

Lawyers for PepsiCo revealed that little-known fact about Mountain Dew's secret formula in court documents filed in Wisconsin, The Record reports.

The disclosure was part of a man's lawsuit against PepsiCo. Ronald Ball claims he got a mouthful of dead mouse when he drank from a can of Mountain Dew in 2009, according to The Record. Ball's lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 in damages.

But PepsiCo's attorneys smell a rat, and are trying to get the suit dismissed. Company lawyers contend Ball can't prove the alleged Mountain Dew mouse was in the can before it left their bottler's control, the website LegalNewsline.com reports.

That could be crucial in a products liability case. PepsiCo could be looking to defend itself by claiming the Mountain Dew can was altered outside of the company's control.

PepsiCo also argues Ball's dead mouse couldn't have come from inside a Mountain Dew can, because chemicals in the soda would have dissolved the mouse into a "jelly-like substance" before it ever reached Ball's lips, according to LegalNewsline.com.

What are these chemicals? One is called brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which gives soda more consistent flavoring, the tech website Gizmodo reports. But BVO is also used as a flame retardant, and it's banned in Europe and Japan.

In the United States, the FDA has approved BVO in small quantities in soft drinks. It's also used in other sodas like Sunkist, Fanta, and Squirt, Gizmodo reports.

Ball's attorney remains unimpressed by the Mountain Dew dissolved-mouse defense. "It doesn't say a lot about their product," he told ABC News.

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