Yakima family: There was a worm in our son's Capri Sun
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YAKIMA, Wash. -- Max Turnquist was sipping on his Capri Sun juice pouch when his straw clogged and he wound up face-to-face with something slimy.
"I didn't really know what it was," said the 12-year-old Yakima boy. "I was kind of like, 'Why is this in the juice box?"'
What the boy nearly swallowed still gives this West Valley family goose bumps. Out of the drink straw came out what lab technicians referred to as "the tail," according to Max's mother, Kim Turnquist.
The family believes that tail belonged to a worm. Their disgust has now turned into concern.
"Is there eggs in the juice? How long has it been there?" said Kim Turnquist.
Kim is especially worried as Max suffers from a heart condition that weakens his immune system.
"We're always a little over-concerned that if he catches something or eats something - ingests something, that it could cause problems to him," said Kim Turnquist.
When the family contacted Kraft Foods, which owns Capri Sun, the they were a little surprised by what they described as the company's "nonchalant" attitude. The family took their concerns to the Internet and learned they were far from alone.
An iReport story posted on CNN.com earlier this year showed what appears to be a worm poking out of a Capri Sun.
"The most frustrating part for me at least is how they deal with it, the Capri Sun company, that it just is really no big deal," said Max's father, Mark Turnquist.
When contacted by KIMA-TV, a Kraft Foods spokesperson said the company could not be sure what, exactly, was in Max's juice pouch, but added it could have been mold.
Kraft said any tiny hole in a Capri Sun pouch can let air in and cause mold to grow since the drink does not contain any preservatives. The company added it regrets the incident and said it planned to look into the case.
The Turnquists are having the found substance tested independently. The incident has also made them take a second look at all of their food.
"Everything we're eating lately, we keep looking and it's like 'Oh, what's in this?' It's kind of opened a bigger jar of worms," said Kim Turnquist.
"I didn't really know what it was," said the 12-year-old Yakima boy. "I was kind of like, 'Why is this in the juice box?"'
What the boy nearly swallowed still gives this West Valley family goose bumps. Out of the drink straw came out what lab technicians referred to as "the tail," according to Max's mother, Kim Turnquist.
The family believes that tail belonged to a worm. Their disgust has now turned into concern.
"Is there eggs in the juice? How long has it been there?" said Kim Turnquist.
Kim is especially worried as Max suffers from a heart condition that weakens his immune system.
"We're always a little over-concerned that if he catches something or eats something - ingests something, that it could cause problems to him," said Kim Turnquist.
When the family contacted Kraft Foods, which owns Capri Sun, the they were a little surprised by what they described as the company's "nonchalant" attitude. The family took their concerns to the Internet and learned they were far from alone.
An iReport story posted on CNN.com earlier this year showed what appears to be a worm poking out of a Capri Sun.
"The most frustrating part for me at least is how they deal with it, the Capri Sun company, that it just is really no big deal," said Max's father, Mark Turnquist.
When contacted by KIMA-TV, a Kraft Foods spokesperson said the company could not be sure what, exactly, was in Max's juice pouch, but added it could have been mold.
Kraft said any tiny hole in a Capri Sun pouch can let air in and cause mold to grow since the drink does not contain any preservatives. The company added it regrets the incident and said it planned to look into the case.
The Turnquists are having the found substance tested independently. The incident has also made them take a second look at all of their food.
"Everything we're eating lately, we keep looking and it's like 'Oh, what's in this?' It's kind of opened a bigger jar of worms," said Kim Turnquist.
About 25 years ago, I bought a box of cereal from a small corner store. It was one of those cereals that had dried fruit in it. For two nights in a row, I ate the cereal directly out of the box as a snack while watching TV in the dark. Then, on day 3, I poured a bowl of cereal during the daytime and discovered that the cereal was absolutely crawling with tiny red spiders. Lots of different lessons learned that day!
 @Central So how many years before you stopped occasionally finding stray bits of cereal shrapnel in corners and under cushions from madly flinging the box into the air and across the room? :^D Â
(One or a few spiders, no problem at all, too many to count would freak me the he(ck) out!!)
So the heck what? Get over it. There are worse things to eat that could really hurt you. I would be you've eated worms in fresh fruits and vegetables your entire life.
Oh no!! Â They must be given millions of dollars for the utter devastation! Â Those poor poor people! Â Call the attorneys! Â This is what happens when you buy food produced in large factories.. though most of the time this stuff it totally faked. Â
Â
In other news thousands of children died of malnutrition and disease in Africa last week. Â Where is their media outrage???
Have hauled out of the Capri Sun manufacturing plant in Fresno a few times. Its like most food processing plants, disgusting. And the sugar smell is just overwhelming when you're trying to get loaded. Its the norm though. Been to worst, been to better. There's a lot of stuff that I just quit eating after going to some of these plants. Rats, bugs, poor sanitation and workers who just didn't care.
I think people really need to take tours through some of the food manufacturing plants and see what really goes into our food. I had a high school teacher that worked at a relish factory...he told some pretty...interesting stories. He had seen dead birds, rats, and other crap (both figuratively and literally) go into the final product. While I would love to start making all my own food from scratch, sadly I can't afford to, so I try not to think about what may be in there. I'm with some of the posters on here that question why the mom was giving a "fruit" drink like Capri Sun to an immune compromised kid...if he wants juice why not squeeze your own orange juice? It would be less sugar and WAY higher in vit C then the sugar water he found the worm in...
Money, money ,money money mooooney. Prove it came out of the juice box. awww crap I don't even know why I am bothering to comment on this. Hope your son gets better and lives a full life of love filled moments.
Yeah, worms are no big deal, BUT, this one looks like a TAPE WORM and that can be really bad news! Yikes!
My mom once found a worm inside her McFish sandwhich, I stopped eating at McDonalds after that. Even if it was an isolated incident or so they claim. Yuck.
I'm not surprised someone found something but more surprised Kraft hasn't done something to correct this. This is not the first time someone found something gross in a Capri Sun and some have found even grosser stuff.
What if you found parts of a decomposed rat or mouse in a baby food product?? I know someone who has. So the family has a right to be mad over the worm Kraft should have at least gave them better customer service.
I once chomped down on a stinkbug in a Mrs. Smith's frozen apple pie. I know firsthand why birds don't eat them. Needless to say, I don't eat that old bat's cooking anymore!
If the parents are so concerned about his health condition, they should be making healthier choices. Make you own juice and not from a box. Pure and simple...
@jelisized That is a reasonable explanation and if this happened to me I'd be satisfied w/ it. I just don't get the feeling Capri Sun offered such an explanation. The worm is trivial, customer care is what seems to be lacking here. I agree that these things happen. As a waitress at Ruby's Diner I once served a bowl of soup and the customer found a marble, of all things, inside. On another occasion (same soup) there was a used band-aid inside. A sincere apology and comping the meal resolved both issues just fine. Satisfying the customer starts with validating their complaint (w/o admitting guilt).
There is no chance that mold was growing in the pouch. These juices are extremely high in sugar, one of nature's best preservatives.Â
 @lakeview If air gets in which it has to in order to keep the pouch puffed up (done at the factory), there is a possibility that mold can grow in it. Real sugar, fake sugar, mold can grow anywhere even on soap scum riddled bathrooms.Â
@PrairieDawn @lakeview The pouch does not have air in it and if it did, it would be a trivial amount particularly to the amount of sugar in the drink. Bacteria and mold both need surface mass and area to grow on, which there is none inside this pouch. There is no way for the mold to grow in there, and its true that sugar is a preservative that would have prevented mold growth. Some referidgerated dog food even has it to prevent it from growing
Of course the family wants a big payout.
But a few thousand bucks and it will all go away.
Just give the kid a wedge of lime and a salt shaker.
Okay, monetary motivation aside, Kraft are acting like a bunch of a**hats: "Kraft said any tiny hole in a Capri Sun pouch can let air in and cause mold to grow since the drink does not contain any preservatives." Oh right, a hole in a drinking pouch that squirts juice all over at the slightest pressure once you've poked a straw into it. They would have been more poignant just to ignore the complaint than reply with that nonsensical farce.
 @windtreeman More poignant? What do you mean by that?Â
If Max suffers from a heart condition that weakens his immune system, he should be on a better diet. Since food and drinks can trigger his immune system to act up. I wounder if they know how many spiders a person eats in a lifetime while they are sleeping? That can give them something new to worry about.Â
 @Just my say That reminds me of a story a few years back of the pair of spiders that made a home in a boy's ear canal.Â
I remember having someone bet me $5 that I wouldn't eat a worm........I wanted the $5, so I did, and I didn't DIE! Had I known I could have waited thirty years to "accidentally" ingest a worm, and RETIRE from the settlement? My how times have changed.
 @Wolfen So as long as it is not fatal, companies should not be held responsible for foreign objects or life forms in the food they serve the public? When I worked in a restaurant we always replaced and refunded customers if they found something in their food. Capri Sun should show at least feigned concern over this and the customer may not have felt the need to contact the news to gain proper attention. Doesn't seem that the company cares anyway though.
When I was a kid in the 70's, there used to be little boxes of frozen strawberries like the frozen fruit mixes you get today. I opened it and there was a huge bolt in it. I threw the bolt in the garbage and continued to prepare the strawberries. Fast-forward 30 years and everyone wets their pants when they find something from nature in their packaged fairytale food.
 @jelisized What's with the blame-the-victim mentality here? Is she wrong for expecting an acknowledgement that a worm is an unacceptable thing to find in a pre packaged product? Does her finding such a thing not point to potentially bigger issues in the production plant? Â
 @SoTweetie  @jelisized Victim? there IS no "victim" here. There is a person who's kid has health issues already, and they're looking for an easy payout. "Look! A WORM in our pre processed, chemical laden food!!" D.D.T is acceptable, but something eaten on Survivor for immunity is NOT. We've ALL eaten bugs (and a lot worse).....but in TODAY'S society, it's not called "protein"....it's called "paycheck". Sickening.
 @Wolfen  @SoTweetie  @jelisized Did I miss where they said they wanted money?
 @SoTweetie I'm guessing that there was a worm in the large container that fills the boxes and the worm was deposited. It's fruit and the process probably just picked up a parasitic animal that naturally eats things in nature. I'm sure it was long dead and the acidity killed it well before it was discovered. As someone said in an earlier post, there are acceptable levels of animal parts and other "things" in food. It's just reality and it happens. While not trying to rebut you personally, there sure are a lot of whiners now since things have been made easier and cleaner for people through technology. There are still mistakes and this is probably one of them. "Stuff" happens, but the earth continues to rotate around the sun and we all get up tomorrow.
BTW--If ya'll knew how much "extra" got into your processed foods, you'd never eat any again! Seriously, some things it's better not to know, if you're that squeamish. SMH--people crack me up!
OKAY, it's really gross, but things happen. My mother found a cockroach in a fruit pie once. OKAY, she won't buy that kind of product ever again, but we never thought of suing or anything... the FDA actually has guidelines about how much "insect parts" are allowable in processed foods because they know the factories can't be perfect 100% of the time. We can expect the processors to make a real effort...but unless you made it yourself, you can never, ever be sure...
"Bigger can of worms"? Hahahaha! When do we find out they added the extra ingredient themselves?
Was it the Tequila flavor Capri Sun?
Not believable. And who feeds that sugar-water to an already compromised kid?
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 @deadcandance  @HawkEye Then they go to a food bank and get the real juice that's offered.
Capri Sun is an anti-nutrient. It is a treat like Koolaid. It is also overpriced. Better off to eat an orange.Â
I have a few fruit trees on my property. My daughter bit into an apple and there was a little worm. She freaked out, but I told her it's ok and normal. I am fully prepared to sue myself.
 @jelisized hahaha!! :P
Capri Sun now offers protein shakes, I guess
OMG a worm! Talk about #firstworldproblems. We have is SO much better today than our grandparents and before that, let alone 3rd world countries, etc. Food safety these days is so good that this makes front page news now. Imagine these people encountering weevils in their flour. LOL.
 @mhungry While it's true that some worms are harmless and would actually be good for you to eat, some of them can make you ill. Did you read the part about the child having a weakened immune system? If you are so smart, maybe you would like to tell us what kind of worm that is?