So, the woman who claimed to find a human finger in her chili at Wendy’s back in 2005 was just scamming the fast food chain, but lots of people really do find disgusting things in their food.
For a comprehensive list of totally gross finds (both real and fake), check out the Hoaxipedia; we’re not gonna spoil your supper by listing them all here. But we can’t resist the list of “nasties” found in food that South Africa’s Independent Online has compiled from reader mail. “These range from worms in chocolate and a mixer bolt in a hot cross bun, to a mouse in a bag of Christmas nuts, pieces of fungus floating in a fizzy drink, a piece of hard plastic embedded in a soft sweet and a shriveled, whole gecko in a bag of muesli,” the article reads.
The guy who found the gecko demanded 35,000 South African rand (approximately $5,000) in damages from the muesli company, basically for being subjected to the sight of a dead gecko. But the columnist argues that paying off a customer who found something disgusting in his food isn’t the best way for a company to take responsibility for its mistake:
When it comes to customer complaints about contaminated food, companies should respond immediately with an apology and then arrange for the product to be collected within a day—or two days at most (always take photos before handing over the ‘evidence’).
The company should fully investigate the complaint and get back to the customer with a formal, written report, detailing their findings.
But is a replacement product and a detailed report enough to heal one’s wounded psyche? Can one put a price on his or her scars when a box of muesli always conjures images of dead reptiles?
Settlement aside, (Hey, get what you can get in damages), but also, stop eating processed foods. If you can’t pick it and eat it or find something natural, don’t buy it. I found 1/2 a mouse in a Mrs. Baird’s fried apple pie when I was a teenager. I haven’t eaten one since, but I’ll tell ya, I don’t eat things that are processed anymore either. Americans should be eating like the Japanese. All natural, meat, fish, rice. Grow it or catch it and then eat it.
Ladyhawke has a point about processed foods, but ignores the fact that the prevalent cancer in Japan is stomach cancer, brought on by some of their favorite foods, which are charred dried fish, squid, mochi, etc, not to mention a generally high alcohol consumption level. (At least judging by my in-laws.)
My favorite finding story was one a read a few years ago about a UK woman who while chopping up a bag of fresh broccoli sudden say it convils and bleed and discoverd that the bag contained a 14 inch, LIVING, poisonous, spanish water viper which she had just inadvertently sliced in half.
That being said finding other things in food (processed or unprocessed) is nothing out of the ordinary. The simple fact is that we in the U.S. have become lazy and unused to checking over our foodstuffs before we shove them in our mouths. as I mentioned in an earlier thread I did a study of what species of toher plants came into the country with bulk bags of legumes and spices. not only was the number and diversity frigtening but some were in fact probably toxic enough in seed form to make someone sick if the simply dumpted the bag in as is. (not to mention the mud bugs and occasional rodent dropping that shows up)
I’ve actually never had problems with American made products but all the chocolate that I buy imported from France or Germany always has little worms in the chocolate. It’s happened enough so that I’ll only get American chocolate from now on.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people refuse to wash produce when they’re putting a salad together. Even when the package says it’s washed and ready to eat, the stuff’s been in trucks and trains and backs of grocery stores and God only knows where else since it went into the package. I bought a container of fresh baby artichokes at Trader Joes last week or so, and saw something odd in the box when the cashier swiped it, so I made him give it to me, and damned if there wasn’t a good-sized snail crawling around in the box! Now I’d rather see a live snail than a dead snail, but in a perfect world there would have been no snail at all in there. I wouldn’t have taken it back to the store if I hadn’t seen it until I was home, but I have to admit it was a little surprising and I’m glad it wasn’t hiding in some arugula or spinach.
Wash your produce, everybody.
I’ll tell ya, if a fly lands on my plate inside a restaurant, it’s going back. Also, if my salad has grit in it, not being washed properly, that’s going back with a comment.