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'Breaking Bad'

Artificial Sweetener Co's

Mum On Tampering

9/30/2013 1:16 PM PDT BY TMZ STAFF

Artificial sweetener companies appear to be in lockdown mode over the scene in the "Breaking Bad" finale -- where Walt tampers with a packet of Stevia and infuses it with the deadly Ricin.

It seems relevant to ask the companies for their opinions, given what happened in the '80s with Tylenol tampering.  So we made the rounds for comment, and found the companies aren't even trying to be artificially sweet. 

-- Sweet 'N Low.  They were just plain rude.  After a PR person said she hadn't watched the show, we explained what happened and asked if they had an opinion about the possibility of product tampering.  The woman laughed and hung up on us ... twice.  Yeah, we're a little persistent.

-- Stevia.  They don't manufacture artificial sugar packets, but they do sell their product to companies that do.  The rep initially told us there was a conference call scheduled later today where they would talk about how the episode might affect their stock.  During the same call -- 5 minutes later -- the rep denied saying anything about a stock call and then hung up.

-- Equal and Splenda were unavailable for comment -- all day.

BTW -- Stevia went up 9.2%, from 15 cents a share, to 16.4 cents a share.



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Spoiler alert.

283 days ago


What a stupid waste of time to speculate, and inadvertently proliferate, the idea of product tampering by fools.

283 days ago


Your "investigation" had nothing to do with artificial sweetener companies being rude. It had everything to do with hearing, "Hi this is TMZ" on the other end of phone. If you hear that or "Hi this is the National Enquirer", 99.9% of the population will roll their eyes, hang up and get on with their day.

283 days ago

Dead account Delete at will    

Wow talk about trying to invent a story.
They hung up on you because your idiots and they don't waste their time with moronic calls. Calling a company with every stupid possibility of tampering is lame. safety seals on Tylenol don't work. they give customers false sense of security.
Just like airlines. Tons of security for the people to get on to make them think their safe while items going into the cargo are not. Would be very easy to make a bomb go off with a altitude switch in the cargo bay. Don't even need to be on board for it, just need to check a bag.

283 days ago


Stick to "Celebrity News" TMZ, this is really stupid...And tell that weirdo on your staff to shave his stupid porn moustache - does he really need attention that badly??

283 days ago


It just goes to show that corporations public relations department is really a public BS department. In this case the show took them by surprise and they didn't have their truckload of manure ready.

283 days ago


Damn!!!! does everything have to be made into a huge deal??? It's a frigging TV show for crap sakes!!! Move on!!!!

283 days ago


Must be a slow celeb news day... Surely someone is taking off or landing at LAX today. Try to make a mountain out of a mole hill elsewhere because this investigative reporting is pathetic.

283 days ago


Hey TMZ here's a tip for you these people work real jobs and live in the real world why would they comment on a fictional cable show that relatively few people even watched and give credibility to someone fictional tampering with their product?

283 days ago


Artificial Sweetener Co's


TMZ, you are stirring up sh**t, I don't blame those folks laughed at your face and hung up on you. Why didn't you ask the Jackson why they were mum on the wacko's child molestation during the wrongful dead lawsuit which would have been more appropriate.

283 days ago


What a dumb article....keeping the TMZ tradition alive

283 days ago


TMZ had gone to shoot since Max died.

283 days ago


Its actually the only one thats not artificial and wont poison you unlike splenda aspartame its kind of a shame they would taint its name.

283 days ago

All Heart    

Their opinion? It's only a TV Show! It didn't really happen!

There are countless things that happen on TV or in movies that aren't real and never happened. Do you ask every industry about all those things?

You guys need to find some real celebrity shena****ns so you can stop with this hypothetical speculation.

283 days ago


Sweet and Low was "just plain rude"? Were you stoned when you called them?

283 days ago

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