Major recall campaign

Pieces of metal: Coca-Cola has to recall bottles

Anyone who has half-liter bottles with a best-before date of 04.02.2025 to 12.04.2025 should return them.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Uli Deck)

Due to a technical error in production, small pieces of metal can be found in the 0.5 liter bottles. The extent of this catastrophe is now clear: Coca-Cola now has to withdraw 26 million bottles of the brands Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and MezzoMix from circulation.

It was announced today that a sieve had broken during production. It can therefore not be ruled out that small pieces of metal are in the bottles. After consultation with the Vienna Market Authority, Coca-Cola has decided to issue a precautionary recall of the 0.5 liter PET lemonade products of the brands Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and MezzoMix with a best before date between February 4, 2025 and April 12, 2025. "We advise against consuming the potentially affected products due to a possible health risk," says Coca-Cola. The extent of this recall action is now also known. A whopping 26 million bottles are affected in Austria and will have to be destroyed in the next few days. This concerns the production of the past two months. 

Popular lemonade varieties affected
The recall affects numerous lemonade varieties of the 500 milliliter brand: Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Zero Lemon, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine, Coca-Cola Light), Fanta (Fanta Orange, Fanta Orange Zero, Fanta Lemon Zero, Fanta Exotic Zero), Sprite (Sprite, Sprite Zero) and MezzoMix.

Consumers can return the products to food retailers for a refund of the purchase price, even without presenting the receipt. Coca-Cola HBC Austria GmbH regretted the incident and apologized to customers.

Retailers and restaurants also affected
The further sale of the goods is also strictly prohibited. Retailers and restaurants must remove the affected batches from sale immediately. The Vienna Market Office and the responsible authorities in the respective federal states will step up their checks in the coming days. There is a threat of severe penalties.