Bottled drinks are supposed to be clean and safe as they are sealed. But consumers still have to be wary following reports of tampered soft drinks in supermarkets in Hong Kong.

Swire Coca-Cola, which bottles Coke and 7-Up in China, last year received reports of the discovery of urine-contaminated Coca-Cola Plus and 7-Up soft drinks at multiple Wellcome and ParknShop stores in Hong Kong, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

A nine-year-old boy felt unwell after consuming a bottle of Coca-Cola Plus from the Wellcome branch at Mong Kok’s Union Park Center on 18 July 2025, SCMP reports.

After an investigation, 63-year-old retiree Franklin Lo Kim-ngai was arrested the following month and the former property agent admitted planting the contaminated soft drinks since July 2024 to retaliate against Wellcome employees he had quarreled with and because of depression caused by his ex-wife and son emigrating and cutting communications with him.

The Kowloon City Court on Tuesday sentenced Lo to a one-year probation.

To avoid falling victim to contaminated drinks, some people drink from their personal water bottles. A Hong Kong man shared in an online forum his experience of drinking tea from an insulated bottle and suffering unexplained diarrhea for a year, The Standard (TS) reports.

The man tried various medications but relief was only temporary. Worse, when he underwent a colonoscopy, several inflammatory polyps were discovered in his intestines.

Doctors investigated the cause and found that the polyps stemmed from his long-time habit of using his insulated cup to drink tea, according to TS.

Not wanting to clean it with a bottle brush so it won’t leave detergent residue, the man only rinsed the personal tea bottle with plain water, which turned its inside into a “bacterial breeding ground.”

General practitioner Dr. Jason Singh warned on social media that only rinsing bottles with water is extremely dangerous, TS reports.

A 2023 study by Water Filter Guru found that reused water bottles can contain 40,000 times more bacteria than a toilet seat, according to TS.