TCA found where?

as with most wine people, when i hear the word 'musty' i immediatly think TCA. but when i heard about musty smelling Tylenol, it didn't register. today's NYT Business section has a story that the musty smell came from pallets used to ship the products. and of course, just as in the wine business, the pallets can come in contact with chlorine that reacts with the wood. so, i'm guessing that we have a case of 'Corked Tylenol'. BTW i have also smelled corked rose's - presumably the boxes they were packed in came in contact with chlorine as well. and yes, by any other name it would still smell that way.

I had a Single Malt Scotch that was corked. When I tried to return it the retailer went "Huh"? I persisted and did get a replacement bottle.

I've had those "baby" carrots corked a couple of times (hey, dog treats)

Yes, once you figure out what that smells results from, you can find it in a number of sources. The most recent head shaker was a case of canned Lacroix sparkling water we had: 4-5 cans out of the case smelled and tasted corked! These are aluminum cans, so the contamination must have occurred somewhere upstream of the canning process, but where is a mystery.

Mark Lipton

dale - i have had corked baby carrots as well. another bad thing is when those baby veggies they serve in restaurants are corked - i.e. infected with TCA. i've had the little beans especially that are quite often corked. unlike a wine, there is no use sending them back. they are all that way. you just go "(sigh)..........".

David C wrote;
…the pallets can come in contact with chlorine that reacts with the wood. So, I’m guessing that we have a case of 'Corked Tylenol'

It’s not actually the chlorine reacting with the wood, but the chlorine base compound being converted into TCA by the action of a mold or fungus. To get TCA taint two things have to be present, a species of mold or fungus and a chlorine based compound. In this case I believe that a wooden pallet or any wood product (a piece of scrap paper) could possible be used as “transportation” for the mold or fungus. Trees and corks in particular can get TCA taint because of high degree of pollutants and pesticides (chlorine based compounds) could penetrate into the tree itself. Possible the air-borne mold or fungus responsible for creating TCA finds a nice moist niche in the tree to call home. So the pallet itself could actually be the source of the chlorine and not necessarily the source of the fungus or mold itself.

Salute