Apple juice can be a sweet drink to help replenish hydration and increase vitamin intake. Whether you’re quenching your thirst or browsing the aisles, no one wants to see anything suspicious. Finding an unusual powdery substance in a Martinelli’s Apple Juice container, however, was enough to make one Walmart customer gag.
Ew, What’s In This Martinelli’s Apple Juice?
Standing in the juice aisle at Walmart, TikTok creator Sadé (@sadeswrld) zooms in on a half-gallon Martinelli’s Apple Juice on the shelf. At the bottom of the bottle is a round, discolored, hockey-puck-shaped object. When she picks it up, the object floats around.
Disgusted, the content creator calls out the brand and tags them in the caption, “@Martinelli’s y’all are my FAV but please tell me what is that?!!”
Viewers are horrified
Sadé’s video garnered over 53,000 views, leaving many just as repulsed.
“Martinelli’s from a glass bottle is the best apple juice ever and now I’m over it,” one viewer commented.
“I remember drinking a bottle of apple juice and a lump of something went down my throat. Still till this day, I don’t know wtf it was. still sick,” a second recounted.
“No freaking way…. This can’t be true,” a third stated.
Meanwhile, others imparted helpful information about that specific apple juice brand.
“That apple juice brand has a recall on it,” one commenter shared.
“I [stopped] drinking that when I heard about the RECALL. It was good while it lasted,” another said.
What is the Martinelli’s Apple Juice recall?
Last March, Martinelli began recalling more than 170,000 10-oz glass bottles in 28 states because the drinks possibly contained a toxic chemical known as patulin. The affected bottles were white-capped, round bottles sold in 4-packs stamped with a December 5, 2026 “best by” date and a 0 41244 04102 2 UPC. The following month, the FDA labeled this as a Class II recall because the contaminant can potentially “cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”
Patulin is a mycotoxin that infects fruit, primarily apples and apple-based products, and can harm humans, according to ScienceDirect. When consumed, it can cause nausea and vomiting, with long-term effects including immunotoxicity, immunosuppression, neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, teratogenicity (harmful effects on the developing fetus), and potential carcinogenicity, per the Agriculture Institute.
Since Martinelli’s uses pasteurized apples, fruit fiber sediment settles at the bottom and collects when the bottle is shaken. However, the discoloration alone in the bottle Sadé spotted likely indicates mold. To err on the side of caution, always check the expiration date, shake the bottle, or bring this to an employee’s attention, which the TikToker did.
“We did, they were concerned too! They said they wouldn’t sell it,” she wrote in the comments section.
@sadeswrld @Martinelli’s y’all are my FAV but please tell me what is that?!! 😭
Subplot reached out to Sadé via TikTok direct message as well as to Martinelli via email and Walmart via media contact form.
