Orange County, NY-- A New York mother of two said she recently fell ill after consuming parts of an object she reportedly found floating in her coconut water.
The squid-like object 34-year-old Barbara Kline of Goshen, NY said she found inside of her Vita Coco beverage was nothing short of horrifying. She said she discovered the mystery item after she swallowed a ‘clump of it.’
Kline said she immediately took to her Facebook page to share images of the object and it quickly went viral, at last check raking in more than 60,000 shares. Kline was even more horrified when people began describing it as possibly being the ‘corpse of an octopus’ or a ‘penis that was decomposed.’
{"author_name":"Barbara","author_url":null,"provider_url":"https://www.facebook.com","provider_name":"Facebook","success":true,"height":null,"html":"&#lt;div id=\"fb-root\"&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;\n&#lt;script&#gt;(function(d, s, id) {\n var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n js.src = \"//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3\";\n fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));&#lt;/script&#gt;&#lt;div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https://www.facebook.com/barsha.evelyn/posts/1915500378728828\" data-width=\"552\"&#gt;&#lt;blockquote cite=\"https://www.facebook.com/barsha.evelyn/posts/1915500378728828\" class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\"&#gt;&#lt;p&#gt;Everyone that drinks this please copy and paste or share to your profile get the word out I have been sick to my stomach...&#lt;/p&#gt;Posted by &#lt;a href=\"#\" role=\"button\"&#gt;Barbara Evelyn Marie&#lt;/a&#gt; on &#lt;a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/barsha.evelyn/posts/1915500378728828\"&#gt;Wednesday, April 26, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;","type":"rich","version":"1.0","url":"https://www.facebook.com/barsha.evelyn/posts/1915500378728828","width":552}
After making the discovery, Kline said she fell ill for several days with diarrhea and vomiting. She said she went to the doctor and had bloodwork done but that it all came back 'negative.'
Kline said that she also contacted Vita Coco, the manufacturer of the product, in regards to the mystery item. Vita Coco confirmed this claim in the following written statement but said that the company and Kline were at odds in dealing with identifying the object.
Vita Coco takes product quality and food safety very seriously. We promptly addressed Ms. Kline’s inquiry and are actively working with her to investigate it since April 26, 2017. However, Ms. Kline has, since April 26, refused to send us the product in question, for safety testing. We must test the product in her possession in order the properly address her claims, and any food or beverage brand in our position would ask the same. We have offered to pick it up from her home, we have offered her the option of taking it to the FDA herself, and we have suggested third-party testing of her choice. As yet, she has agreed to none of this. We are hoping she will make a decision soon so we can continue our investigation of her claim and assist her further.Arthur Gallego, head of communications for Vita Coco
Kline said the reason she had not shipped the object to Vita Coco is because she feared the company would dispose of it. Kline said she was seeking to identify the specimen independently, but initially was having a hard time. One third-party agency she contacted was unable to accept the object and referred her to another company.
As of Wednesday, May 10, Kline had been in contact with the Food and Drug Administration and was attempting to file a complaint.
Officials with the FDA stressed that it is important that if you have an adverse reaction or have any other complaint you should contact them immediately with as much information as possible. Here is a link to the consumer complaint page for the FDA.
