Today after lunch, I got thirsty so I went to the Ace Hardware next door, and used their Pepsi vending machine.

I decided I wanted a change from Mountain Dew, so I bought myself an orange Slice.

I noticed the date on the twist cap read: "March 12, 2002". I thought nothing of it, and then I looked at the top of the cap, which states: "redeem by 1/31/02".

Now, just how in god's name does that work out?

The bottle expried at 3/18/02, yet the cap must be redeemed (for prize if I won-i didnt) by 1/31/02 WTF??

I decided to drink it anyways, because I was thirsty. It tasted a little funny, but didn't think much of it either.

About an hour later after I finished the Slice, I threw up a few times. I'm not sure if it's from the Slice, or the cheese burger I had from the Mexcian food place next door. I get burgers from them all the time, and they are extremely good for $3.50.

Think I outta call Pepsi and complain about their expired pop in THEIR vending machines??

Was it a 'diet' drink?  Soft drinks with Nutrasweet have a relatively short shelf life and taste like crap very soon after they expire.

So how did you hurt yourself?

Wasn't diet.





This is a very reputable and clean place. I personally know the owners, and the workers. I have aten there literally 100s of times.

Due to diabetes I have to drink the diet stuff , since I'm the only one who does at work the vending machine guy usually leaves the expired ones out for me . I think the expired ones taste better actually . Hmmm .... formaldhyde , tasty yum yum ...

Here, lie on the couch.

I work a few miles from my home. Never said the vending machine was at my neighbors house..

Once I found something leaking out the bottom of a hardly used tool chest. The culprit was one of those 4 extra ounce Max Headroom promo Coke cans (I think I put it in there around 4 years earlier) that was all bulged out at the top and was dripping out. Scary thing is that it ATE a hole through the metal floor of the chest!

Have a Coke and a smile.  Pour yourself a glass, drop a nail in it and report back in a couple days.

As an experiment in high school my science teacher put a rats tooth(no I don't know how he went about getting it) in a mason jar full of coca-cola, two weeks later it was totally dissolved. I was fairly impressed and wondered at it's effect on the insides of the human body.

ComputerGuy, don't worry about the Pepsi. It sounds like you have colon cancer.

i once drank a coke from the 70's

that i found in my friends garage still was good :)

still in the bottle

On a side note:

I was watching a press conference on the damage from the Nisqually earthquake here in Puget Sound.  The engineers assigned to repair the Washington State capitol building were trying to find out when a series of columns were last renovated.  Somehow that information was lost.  When they cut into one of them, they found a Pepsi can inside that was apparently left by one of the workers. They date traced the can (they didn't say exactly how) and presto!

Canned soda is considered a nonperishable food item, and has a shelf life that should be quite long at ambient temperatures.  Kept cool, it should stay good even longer.  Bottled soda should only be slightly less resistant.

The born on/use by date is a marketing gimick.  For nonperishable items it indicates a point in time where the flavor might be less than optimal, just like experiation dates on over the counter medicines.  Their potency is diminished after the use by date.  The carbonation in coke (as we southerners call all "sodas") inhibits bacterial growth.

And the fact that the place is clean and you've eaten there hundreds of times means nothing.  It only takes one time to cut up chicken or beef and then touch an already prepared dish to cause contamination.  I've been in professional kitchens, and those guys move fast enough that sometimes things like that happen.  All things considered, the likelyhood of getting sick from a refrigerated soda is less likely than from prepared food.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Many soft drinks acidic, as the process of adding the carbon dioxide actually produces carbonic acid. However a lemon would be more acidic than any drink and an orange or grape would probably be in the same ballpark. None of these can compare to stomach acid, so they are pretty harmless in that aspect.

Probably got sick off of germs and such from the mouth of the can.  I hear it's a must to clean off the tops before drinking from them.  They walk on them things and who knows what else.  I seriously doubt a couple months past the date would cause any health concerns.