Tide Pods are not being discontinued, despite numerous people sent to poison control

Tide's social media team have one very clear message: don't eat Tide Pods, and if you do, get straight to the poison control centre.

As the viral Tide Pod Challenge internet trend continues to gain momentum, with people eating laundry detergent pods that are packed with dangerous chemicals, Tide's Twitter team has some serious life-saving to do. And it all starts with a glass of water or milk.

A scroll down the company's Twitter feed reveals numerous messages along the lines of "Our Product is absolutely not to be consumed. Please, if you have, drink a glass of water or milk and contact the Poison Control Center(800-222-1222) or a Doctor Immediately".

Others encourage people to contact Tide once they are feeling better, for unclarified reasons. "Contact your doctor or your local poison control center. When you're feeling better, please call us at 1-800-879-8433. We're open M-F from 9-6 ET." Some of these tweets say the company wants to "find out how you're doing".

The health advice came after Tide created a safety video informing people why they should not eat the pods. "What should Tide PODs be used for? DOING LAUNDRY. Nothing else. Eating a Tide POD is a BAD IDEA," they wrote. The video, starring Rob Gronkowski from the New England Patriots NFL team repeatedly saying "no," has since been viewed more than 8 million times.

Nonetheless, people are still tweeting that they have eaten the pods as part of the challenge. One user said: "I just ate one. No joke I wanted to do the challenge, and I think I may have swallowed some. Who do I contact to ask what I should do?" They received a reply with advice from Tide within 16 minutes.

Another user said: "Help me @tide I put a tide pod in my mouth because I though it would clean my insides and make me live longer. I feel like I'm getting burned alive rn [right now]. What do I do?"

A fake tweet is now circulating online indicating that Tide Pods are being taken off sale because of the viral internet challenge. The tweet reads: "We regret to inform you, we will be removing Tide Pods from shelves starting February 1st. It's been a good run, but we can't risk lives over having clean clothes."

However, the tweet was quickly debunked because it has no time stamp and does not appear anywhere in Tide's Twitter timeline, plus the company always refers to the product as Tide PODs.