Gatorade Complaints – Slimy Substance
Yesterday I stopped by speedway to get a gatorade and they were out of my normal flavor “Riptide Rush”. But I spotted a new flavor I hadn’t seen or tried before called “Tropical Blend”. Green is my favorite color so I figured why not, and gave it a shot.
When I got out to my car in the sun I noticed something floating around in it. I wasn’t sure if it just hadn’t been mixed well or what. When I got home I searched on google for a few different terms trying to figure out if anyone else had experienced this before and if they knew exactly what it was. I found a few complaints that were similar to mine.. but nobody really had an answer about what it was. One person said they contacted gatorade and they told them it was just mold and nothing to worry about.. like it wasn’t a big deal. I’m sure working in a place where you have to take complaints you’re told to come off like nothing is a big deal anyways.. but I really don’t think this is mold. (link)
another completely delusional person thinks it’s HIV postive semen. (link)
and there’s a slew of complaints on a complaint forum here. (link)
I took a video where you can see the stuff swirling around in the bottle before opening it.. and took another video of the gatorade being poured into a strainer so you can see the actual goo. I’m going to send off the videos to gatorades complaint support and see if they’ll tell me what it is exactly.
what do you think this is?
UPDATE (6/28/2012):
Sorry for the late update.. I had contacted gatorade and they got back to me within 3 days.. with this email:
(^^^ click the above image to open a larger size.)
It was pretty generic and I waited about a week before actually contacting them by phone. After talking to Megan, she pretty much said the same that I had read on other forums around the web. She said, “it was just mold” and down played it. I’m pretty sure they’re taught to downplay everything like it’s not a big ordeal or they’d end up getting all kinds of threats and complaints. I’m still not convinced this is mold.. but, I had already discarded the nasty goo. Not much else I could do. She offered to send me a few 2$ off vouchers and I received 3 of them in the mail about 2 weeks after our phone conversation. The coupons over compensated for the original price of the gatorade. I’m sure if I complained and acted angry I could have received more. I just didn’t feel like arguing when I called in.
It struck me a little odd that I actually spoke with Megan (the person that responded to my email). Almost like it really was a big deal and she was the one who knew how to play this out in all circumstances. If I acted angry, threatened suing, or anything else. Normally when you call in to a company you’ll get connected with a random customer service rep.. but they forwarded me directly onto her phone. I actually had to leave a voicemail because she didn’t answer when I first called in, and she returned my call within 10 minutes.
If anyone else finds this page because you have also found some goo like substance in your gatorade.. please contact gatorade yourself and post in the comments below what you find out. If they tell you it’s the same thing or something completely different. Also how you acted on the phone.
here’s a direct link to contact gatorade by email or phone: http://cr.gatorade.com/usen/gatusen.cfm?date=20120628
Cristina (April 29, 2012, 1:39 am).
That looks extremely unhealthy, not to even mention disgusting. Who in their right mind is going to be okay and able to sell that stuff to anyone? The fact that Gatorade is a huge and very well known company, world wide, that’s extremely unacceptable. Obviously if more than one or five customers have complained about the same problem, something isn’t right and they should do something in order to find a resolution and to keep this kind of thing from happening.
Zander64 (April 29, 2012, 3:36 pm).
Looks like they are gonna have to recall millions of bottles (however many were run in the lot or lots)
If you play the market.. this is a no brainer.
1) Short Gatorade at the current price (you will earn a dollar per shorted share for every dollar that the stock drops)
2) When the stigma passes, sell your shorted shares and buy them back, ride them back up a few bucks and get out!
Is Gatorade part part of JnJ, General Mills or something?
Good post
Ulysses (June 27, 2012, 11:02 pm).
Today I brought a G2 grape flavor and wen I took my first sip I was like yuk this does not taste right. I foolishly took another sip and tasted the same spoiled, rotten taste after I asked a friend to taste it and he almost thru up. It was then he pointed out the slim white puss. I’ve felt sick all day and thinking bout seeing my doctor tomorrow. I googles Gatorade complaints and found this page. This kind of thing should not be happening. I drank that nasty stuff and demand to know what it is and y it’s in there.
Cy (August 2, 2012, 2:44 am).
I just had a lemon lime with these floaters in it. I packaged it up and am going to send it to a lab. Your onto something there regarding it settling to the bottom rather than staying on top if it were mold. This stuff might have mold in it, however it doesn’t look like a mold. I hope it is not what I think it might be – Polyacrylamide (a carcinogen and sterilant). Some water treatment plants are using this poop to chemically filter drinking water – in the past it was limited to use for waste water only It’s getting to the point that you can’t trust anything you buy from strangers/corporations (we have to revert back to good old common sense). The crumby deal is that I used Gatorade to substitute for my Coca Cola habit after the little 160′s appeared on the cans, I knew that they had changed something – found out Coke were using GMO high sucrose corn syrup and cutting it with aspratame … I’m really hoping that it is only a mold – still gross though! I’ll let you know when I get the results back.
Dawn Burns (January 6, 2013, 4:53 pm).
This same thing just happened to my husband. Did u ever get the lab results back? Waiting patiently to find out what this slime is. I honestly think we can come together and do something about this.
raghu (October 10, 2012, 12:47 pm).
I bought a 24 pack of Gatorade from Sams club. All of them have these goo. Some have this goo and have powdery sedimentation at the bottom, which looks different than fungus/mold.
I infact drank 2 bottles as I did not suspect this prior. Now I see that poison in every bottle !!
gPalci (October 22, 2012, 2:10 am).
This is some form of fungus that caused a colleague of mine to be out of work and cost him several thousand dollars in pay.
Tia Rae (December 27, 2012, 1:37 am).
Omg!!!!!!!! I got one exactly like that at Safeway the fierce strawberry!!!! It smells soooo disgusting. I want to calll and complain
Jason Burns (January 6, 2013, 12:45 pm).
It happened to me just today. I thought that someone might have adulterated my G2 before loading it in the vending machine… (that’s what it looks like) I called my local hospital to see if they could analyze it but they said they would have to ask and call me back. I then called Gatorade. They said it was mold and this is a common problem if the lid was slightly loose or open. It doesn’t look like mold to me. It looks like something more naughty to me… Very scary!
Aggie (February 10, 2013, 10:07 pm).
This just happened to my husband too. I am going to call them tomorrow. If I don’t get a good response, then I will submit the bottle to my local News Station and have them demand what it is. Thank you for posting the video. By the looks of the dates in the comments, seems likeit happened recently.
Jon (February 11, 2013, 1:04 am).
It happened to me in april 2012.. but since I originally posted.. it seems someone posts every other month about it just happening to them.
weird.