Sweetness!

October 19th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Oops!

Minute Maid Zero Sugar Lemonade was the culprit. Note: “Zero Sugar.”

Well, it wasn’t “Zero Sugar.” It had loads of sugar. Because those cans contained the regular lemonade formula. Full sugar! Sweet! 150 calories and 40g of sugar in each 12oz. can while the Zero Sugar version was supposed to have only 5 calories and 0 sugars.

13,152 cases, each with 12 cartons of 12 cans of 12 ounces of lemonade. That’s a lot of lemonade. (And a lot of sugar.)

Ye olde company, Coca-Cola, didn’t tell anyone, but quietly began a recall in September; no news release was issued. According to the FDA, the event is considered ongoing. The agency classified the recall as Class II:

This involves a health hazard situation where there is a remote probability of adverse health consequences from use of the product.”

Apparently it was all because of a labeling error. The right lemonade with the wrong label (or vice versa, depending on your inclination). In any case, the mislabeled product was shipped to retail stores in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.

(In case you were interested, here is a PSA: The affected product included cartons with the codes: FEB1725CNA or FEB1725CNB. The UPC code is 0 25000 12115 9. And customers who have purchased the product are advised to discard of it or return it to their place of purchase for a refund, lest your sweetness level increaseth causing you all kinds of hyperglycemic problems. Then again, it may reduce your intake of aspartame, the artificial sweetener in the real Zero Sugar Lemonade, which has been said to cause all kinds of problems, especially in rats, but we won’t go the rodent route, shall we?)

Throughout the last year, there has been a rise in food recalls. In 2023, the FDA issued 506 recalls, which was the highest number of reports in five years. From 2022 to 2023, the number of FDA recalls increased by 19.6 percent.

Said a spokesperson for Coca-Cola in a statement:

In September, Coca-Cola Consolidated voluntarily recalled a limited quantity of Minute Maid Lemonade 12-ounce cans in parts of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. No impacted product remains in the market, and all recall activities in those markets are complete.”

So if you see folks from the aforementioned states on a sugar high, you know why.

But the sweetness that the Bible recommends is of a different kind. The sweetness of God’s word. One of the descriptors of God’s word is that it is sweet! More even, than honey! (And more valuable than gold!)

The law of Yahweh is blameless, restoring the soul;
the testimony of Yahweh is reliable, making wise the simple.
The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring for always;
the judgments of Yahweh are true, righteous altogether.
More desirable than gold, even than much fine gold;
and sweeter than honey, even the flow [from] the honeycomb.
Also, Your servant is warned by them;
in keeping them is much reward.
Psalm 19:7–11

And the consequence of listening to (living by) that sweet word of God? Blessings from God that are incredibly sweet—“honey from the rock,” no less.

Would that My people would listen to Me,
[and] Israel would walk in My paths.
Quickly their enemies I would subdue,
and against their adversaries turn My hand.” …
“And I would feed you from the best of wheat,
and [with] honey from the rock I would satiate you.”
Psalm 81:13–14, 16

One sweetness leads to another!

SOURCE: The Hill, Independent