There’s something in the water
Metal chunks and fine metal shards were the last thing a Hamilton man expected to find in his bottle of Kiwi Blue water.
Halfway through pouring a drink, Tyron Noble heard a gravel-rustling sound coming from the bottle.
‘‘I poured it into a cup and could hear something rustling, like gravel. It wasn’t until we looked at the bottle and saw something in there.’’
He poured the water through a sieve and gathered the pieces. He described them as aluminium or magnesium, little melted balls, and shards that looked like they had broken off of something.
‘‘We were definitely concerned – there’s decent-sized chunks of metal to fine sandy bits in there that we could have consumed.
‘‘It’s not ideal to be drinking foreign objects.’’
Noble purchased a four-pack of 1.5-litre water from Pak ‘n Save in Tauranga last Sunday. Kiwi Blue is owned by Coca-Cola, and bottled from the Blue Spring in Putaruru, South Waikato.
He believes it could have come from a piece of equipment used to manufacture the water. But he’s not sure.
‘‘Maybe in a factory somewhere and something’s broken off down the way, that’s my theory.’’
Noble contacted the company expressed concern about the issue and wanted to research further.
He provided the batch number and expiry date on the bottle and sent through the contents found inside the bottle.
‘‘I’m just glad that we found it early and none of my family – well, hopefully none of us – consumed it.
‘‘I’m looking out for people that could be in our situation, and would be concerned if someone else was drinking water with metal chunks in it.’’
A Coca-Cola New Zealand spokeswoman confirmed the complaint had been received and an investigation intiated.
‘‘As part of our investigation, we are checking production runs, inspecting retained samples and other records,’’ she said.
She said there had been no other similar complaints related to Kiwi Blue in recent times.