Woman issues warning after getting injured from kombucha explosion
A woman has issued a warning to others about leaving kombucha in the refrigerator after it allegedly exploded.
Morgan Bailey recently took to TikTok with her hand wrapped up in a cast to remind viewers of what could happen when the fermented tea drink isn’t consumed fast enough. “This is your friendly reminder that if you have kombucha in your refrigerator and it has been ‘kind of a long time,’ don’t touch it,” her video began.
“Get some oven mitts and — I don’t know — maybe some protective eye goggles. It will blow up.”
In subsequent TikToks, Bailey revealed more details about her experience, including that this was a regular store-bought bottle that she had purchased before with no problems, and not a homemade version.
The bottle had been left unopened in her fridge for around three months. “I touched it and I guess the pressure of my hand moving it a little bit made it turn into a literal bomb,” she explained.
“There was glass everywhere, all over my kitchen, the walls, the ceiling,” Bailey continued. “I’m thankful I was wearing my glasses because it actually went into my face.”
Although her face may have been protected, she did unfortunately leave the incident with an injury. When the glass bottle shattered it left a large cut on her hand. “I was in shock. I immediately saw that the cut on my hand was pretty bad, so I wrapped it up in paper towels and didn’t look at it again because I’m squeamish,” Bailey said.
“Our dog was in the kitchen with me, so I was nervous that he was hurt. I checked him even before wrapping my hand, and thankfully, he was totally fine. Then my husband took me to the hospital.”
“It cut directly between my fingers around my ring finger and down my palm. It was pretty gross,” she continued. “I could see some stuff inside my hand. I’m very lucky though, I just needed stitches. I just need to wear this and have stitches for the next two weeks and then I’ll go back and get them removed.”
Bailey explained in an interview with BuzzFeed how lucky she was that she was wearing her wedding band, which was able to provide some protection. “The glass sliced around my ring finger, but luckily, I recently got married and was wearing my wedding band, because it definitely would’ve been a lot worse had the ring not taken some of the impact!” she told the outlet.
The doctor at the hospital hadn’t told her how the explosion could have happened. The TikToker said: “Clearly, the kombucha continued to ferment. The pressure just got so high that the slight movement from me grabbing it tipped it over the edge.”
In response to her videos, many people expressed their concern for their own kombucha bottles sitting in the fridge.
“Me watching with a bottle of kombucha from TWO YEARS AGO!! Pray for me y’all,” one comment read.
Another commenter agreed, writing: “There is literally a ginger mint kombucha in the back of my fridge, in a GLASS bottle from summer for sure. What do I do??”
“Now I’m scared because I have one in my fridge that’s been there a long time…” a third commenter wrote.
