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Wisconsin Mother Finds Mold in Child’s Juice Box

Posted at 9:20 PM, Apr 28, 2014
and last updated 2014-04-28 22:29:36-04

NEW BERLIN, Wis. (April 28, 2014) — A Wisconsin mother was appalled after recently discovering mold in her 5-year-old son’s juice box.

“I poked a hole in the juice box and I poured it into his cup for him to drink and poured half the juice box in and everything looked normal,” Suzanne Hogue told FOX 6 in Milwaukee.

Everything wasn’t normal, though, and upon further inspection Hogue discovered mold inside the juice box.

“It took up half of the juice box and at this point it was brown, black, green.  I didn’t even know what I was looking at at first. I was so shocked when I opened it up.  I had no idea what it was.  It was so repulsive and it had an odor,” she said.

Experts told FOX 6 that the mold growing inside 5-year-old Nathan Hogue’s juice box can happen to any food product that’s exposed to air.  In this case, the box must have had a small hole.

Suzanne Hogue said her son has autism, and couldn’t tell her what was wrong with his juice box.

“He can’t talk, so he had no way to tell me,” she said.

People all over the country have complained about finding mold inside juice boxes and pouches.  The brand doesn’t really matter; the problem is in the packaging.

Kraft’s Capri Sun is making a big change to their packaging.  New pouches released this month have clear bottoms so you can see inside.

One of the frequently asked questions on Capri Sun’s website says: “Did you make this change in response to mold?”

The company responded:  “We made the change for several reasons. Moms across the country told us they like that Capri Sun juice drinks are made with no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors, but wanted the ability to see inside the pouch. The clear bottom makes it easy to verify that the Capri Sun kids love contains all the goodness moms expect and nothing they don`t.”

The Milwaukee Health Department told FOX 6 that “Other than for individuals with medically diagnosed mold hypersensitivity or allergies, mold ingestion via food products is typically not associated with severe health symptoms.”

Both the Center for Disease Control and Hogue’s pediatrician told her to wait and see if Nathan got sick.  Luckily, he didn’t.

“The thing that was scary was they told me it could take up to a week for him to get sick, so for the next week I would watch him like a hawk,” Hogue said.