Alcoholic Pepsi Accidentally Released In Sweden

A bottling accident nearly led to a big surprise in Sweden when over a thousand normal-looking cans of Pepsi Max were accidentally filled with an alcoholic party drink and sent to stores this week.

According to The Local, Carlsberg Sweden was forced to initiate an instant recall upon figuring out that 1,872 cans that were supposed to be used for Pepsi Max zero-calorie cola had actually been filled with Xide Citrus Fizz, which is one of those ready-made alcoholic sodas and has about a 4.5 percent alcohol content. By the time anybody figured out what had happened, the cans had already been sent off to the Lidl supermarket chain. 

Carlsberg maintains that it was unlikely a person would have drunk the fizzy alcohol by mistake, since Pepsi Max looks like regular Pepsi, and the Xide Citrus Fizz is a much lighter color. The cans are opaque, but it seems unlikely that a person could taste a citrus-flavored alcohol soda and not notice after one sip that it was not the expected Pepsi. Still, everything was fine and Carlsberg got the cans off the shelves.

"We apologize for what happened and any discomfort it caused," a spokesperson said. "We take it very seriously and have launched an internal investigation."