Pepsi admits drink is bad for your body – if you're a mouse

Too much fizzy drink will rot your teeth, but if you are a small rodent, and if the drink happens to be called Mountain Dew, then it's actually capable of dissolving your entire body.

So claims PepsiCo, the global drinks behemoth which has cited the extraordinarily-corrosive nature of its bright green, citrus-flavoured product in an effort to defend itself against a personal injury lawsuit.

Ronald Ball, 52, from Wisconsin, has alleged that a can of Mountain Dew he purchased from a vending machine in 2009 made him so ill that he "began to vomit". When he later examined the container, he found a dead mouse inside it.

Defending the $50,000 claim, PepsiCo hired veterinary surgeon Lawrence McGill to conduct a detailed post mortem. In his submission to court, he said the mouse was not sufficiently decomposed to have spent significant time inside a can of Mountain Dew, a drink associated with extreme sports.

Noting the high acidity of the drink, the vet argued that after 30 days, the length Bell claims the creature was in the can, the rodent would have "disintegrated" into a "jelly-like substance".