The Massive Coca-Cola Recall That Affected 3.2 Million Cans In 1972

Coca-Cola is a brand that feels untouchable. They currently hold the title of the biggest and most valuable soft drink brand in the world, with its impressive portfolio including Sprite and Fanta. But that's doesn't make them immune to controversy, and the brand pops up several times when ranking the biggest soda recalls in history. One of the biggest recalls to occur in the United States took place in 1972, when 3.2 million cans of Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta were pulled from shelves due to contaminated can lids.

The source of the contaminated can lids can be traced back to a malfunctioning automatic oven at a Reynolds Metals plant in New Jersey, which supplied the can lids. The lids were coated with a vinyl epoxy resin carried by a solvent, which should normally evaporate during baking, but remained due to a temperature malfunction. The residual solvent gave off a strong odor reminiscent of petroleum and potentially caused nausea. 

Using the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards (introduced in 1978), this would likely be classified as a Class II recall, which is "a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote." Although the FDA estimated that only 1,000 to 16,500 lids were actually contaminated, the recall was widened from 21,000 cans to eventually include 3.2 million. 

Recalls can affect all different types of food and drinks, from massive canned food recalls to potato recalls that swept across the U.S. Recalls can occur for a variety of reasons, and while many are relatively minor, there are also Class I recalls, which are classified by the FDA as a "reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death." Fortunately, in the history of Coca-Cola in the United States they've not been subject to a Class I recall, but there have been many cases of Class II recalls in it's recent history. 

For Coca-Cola, 2025 wasn't a great year and it was subject to several large, public recalls. Luckily, the numbers pale in comparison to the 1972 recall. In October, over 70,000 cans of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and Sprite were recalled from Texas shelves and warehouses due to potential metal fragments, which posed a laceration risk. In March, over 10,000 cans were recalled in Illinois and Wisconsin due to a potential plastic contamination risk. 

Overseas, however, there have been instances of much more serious Coca-Cola recalls. In Belgium in 1999, many consumers, including schoolchildren, fell sickafter drinking Coca-Cola products. This saw approximately 17 million cases recalled, which at the time was the biggest soda recall in the company's history. While the cause was believed to be a combination of bad carbon dioxide and fungicide contamination, its severity was also linked to a case of mass-hysteria. More recently, in 2024 over 28 million half-bottles of Coca-Cola products were recalled in Austria due to potential contamination from small metal pieces due to a production error, which takes the title as the largest recall in Coca-Cola's history.