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Next time any conversation stalls, ask people what the weirdest thing is they have found in food. There will be the usual stories of a hair, of a dead fly and so forth – but then there are the scary ones like needles, glass or parts of small rodents.
Stories have hit the news about a man finding a mouse tail in a McDonald's burger and a woman finding live maggots in a snack she was eating on a Qantas flight.
Apart from the obvious dangers to the digestive system of eating pieces of glass or needles, weird objects in food also call into question how hygienic the route is that the particular item has taken from the farm to your plate . And often , but certainly not always, the culprit is the kitchen where it has been prepared.
And these are only the things you can see – if hygiene rules have not been observed, dangerous bacteria could be lurking in the food you're eating.
Back to the stuff you can see. What are some very weird people have found in their food?
- A woman in Northern Ireland discovered part of an oven glove baked into her slice of bread. Herefordshire-based Hovis makers Premier Foods were fined £750.
- John Agnesini, 27, from Queens, New York was shocked to find an 18cm knife in his in his Subway sandwich.
- Fred DeNigri from the US found a toad or a frog in his can of Pepsi. It was confirmed by the FDA that this had happened.
- Needles have been found in food on Delta airlines six times in the last few days. Four of the needles were found by passengers. European and US authorities are investigating.
- Clarence Stowers found part of a severed finger packed inside a pint of frozen custard he'd bought from a Kohl's Frozen Custard shop. Apparently an employee had had an accident while working on the machine that dispenses the custard.
- A California woman found a condom in a bowl of clam chowder she had ordered at a McCormick and Schmick's seafood restaurant in California. She won an undisclosed settlement from the restaurant.
- Stephen Forse found a dead and tailless mouse in a loaf of bread. The manufacturer of the bread, Premier foods, was given a fine of $26 470.
- Lauren Coleman from Illinois found a used bandage in some French fries she had ordered from McDonalds. The responsible restaurant employee apologised.
- Ross Dance, 32-year-old accounts manage from London says he found a live frog in the chicken wrap he had bought from Nando's Chickenland in Victoria.
- Ashley Barry found a large metal clamp beneath the plastic wrap of the frozen meal her mother had purchased for her. The branch of Aldi, where it was bought, gave her two bags of free groceries.
(Sources: womansday.com, oddee.com, mentalfloss.com)
(Susan Erasmus, Health24.com, July 2012)
