Hi-Desert family discovers mysterious, disturbing goo in child’s new juice

Jamie Brattain, of Joshua Tree, said what should’ve been naturally good 100 percent juice grew into something else.

Brattain described the mysterious blob growing inside her 13-year-old daughter Katie’s “good2grow” juice bottle and posted photos of it on Facebook.

“It was chunky, slimy, we poured it in a cup and it bounced to the top. It was horrible,” said Brattain.

“I opened it and I would describe it looking like a slug. It was gross,” said Katie Brattain.

The mother of four bought three packs of the juice from a Stater Bros in Yucca Valley, which were labeled to expire in June. She served them to her kids with dinner Wednesday. The refill packs of Tropical Fruit Medley claim to be 100 percent juice, all smiles and no spills, but instead, “I gagged and said ‘No you can’t drink that’ and I took it from her.”

By that time Brattain’s sons had already finished drinking theirs.

“I was concerned, if this had this in it, is it going to make my other kids sick,” said Brattain.

The Atlanta-based company boasts its juices come with a variety of collectible character Sippatop caps, however the refill packs come without a hard seal lid. They only have a thin foil layer that can easily be punctured.

Good2grow’s website warns consumers that seals can be damaged during transportation, at the retail shelf, or even in the home, allowing the juice to be exposed to air, which can allow for the growth of mold over time.

“I’m disgusted. You think they’d want to get it off the shelves. When I notified Stater Bros they immediately pulled them off the shelves. They don’t even expire until the end of June,” said Brattain.

Stater Bros refunded Brattain for the juice packs. She said she called good2grow’s customer service Thursday, but no one answered.

When we emailed the company we received this response.

“We are very sorry she had this experience and we would like to conduct an investigation into what happened to her good2grow product.”

The company reached out to Brattain via Facebook to obtain more information about the specific juice pack.

“I hope they don’t offer me coupons for the drink. I don’t plan on buying anymore for my kids.”

Good2grow offered to send the family coupons for more products. A quality control representative told Brattain that from the photo, it looked like mold and was likely an isolated incident.

The family said the company should be more aware and come up with a better way to seal the juice.

“I’ll probably stop drinking it after what I saw,” said Katie.