Officials Defend Pepsi Quality Control : Production: Plant that originated can in which rat was allegedly found has passed inspections.

Pepsi-Cola officials defended their quality control standards Wednesday and said the claim of a 22-year-old woman that she found a dead rat in a can of Diet Pepsi may be a hoax.

“You have to remember, the remains of the animal were found after the can was opened,” spokeswoman Anne Ward said from Pepsi headquarters in Somers, N.Y. “Nothing was found in a sealed can. The logical conclusion is that whatever was put there, was put there after the can was opened.”

On Friday, Maria Del Consuelo Lazaro, a visiting schoolteacher from Jalisco, Mexico, filed a lawsuit against Pepsi Cola Inc. and Albertson’s grocery store chain. She alleged that while visiting family in Buena Park in July, she drank from a Diet Pepsi can she had bought at an Albertson’s only to spit out some strange matter.

A few hours later, she went to Anaheim General Hospital complaining of abdominal pains.

Staff at the hospital cut into the can and discovered a full-grown rat, said attorney Daniel Ramirez, who is representing Lazaro. The hospital sent the can and its contents to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which confirmed that the can contained a rat.

Ramirez said that his client is telling the truth, and that tampering wasn’t possible.

“That would presuppose that someone inserted the rodent through the pop top,” he said. “That’s kind of illogical because it’s a big rodent.”

The Buena Park Pepsi-Cola bottling plant where the can originated has passed at least five inspections since July, 1993, officials of the Orange County Health Care Agency, state Department of Health Services and the FDA said Wednesday.

County inspectors, who did three routine inspections between December, 1993, and May, 1994, reported they found no rodents or vermin, and issued no health violation notices after inspections. The county also received no consumer complaints, said Jim Huston, the agency’s assistant director of environmental health.

State inspectors visited the plant in July, 1993, and found no problems, said Ozzie Schmidt, a state health services supervisor.

After the July complaint, the FDA also inspected the plant and found no problems, said spokeswoman Rosario Quintanilla-Vior.

Ward said the company is not overly concerned that the lawsuit will tarnish its image or hurt sales of the popular soft drink.

But some shoppers interviewed Wednesday at the Buena Park Albertson’s, where the soda was purchased, said they believed Lazaro’s story. Several said they probably will not buy another can or will urge friends to avoid Pepsi as a result. Others said they’ll take their chances.

“It’s scary,” said Marlene Rodriguez, 29, of Buena Vista as she glanced down the two six-packs of Diet Coke in her shopping cart. “Seems like I should pour out a whole can in a glass now to see what’s in there or maybe buy only the clear bottles.”

“What’s next?” asked shopper Gorbachove Buyne. “A cow in a milk carton?”