# Frightening things you've found in food **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 25, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597 "2007-02-25T09:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Secret\_Volcano\_Lair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Secret\_Volcano\_Lair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Secret_Volcano_Lair)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/1 "2007-02-25T09:44:45Z")
A couple days ago I opened up a package of ramen noodles and found some kind of insect had chewed its way inside. Years ago, my parents ordered a Meat Lover’s pizza from Pizza Hut and found that someone mixed a used band-aid in with the toppings. Thankfully they told me before I grabbed a slice. My mom also stopped purchasing Del Monte products after she found a nice juicy worm inside a can of fruit cocktail. What sort of horrible things have you stumbled upon while eating? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/2 "2007-02-25T09:51:10Z")
Not while eating, but after cooking: pulling back the husk on a grilled ear of corn and finding a number of gnawed channels through the kernels, each channel terminating in a small, tough, and well-cooked larva. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/3 "2007-02-25T10:04:59Z")
**Secret Volcano Lair** is a pretty awesome user name. Welcome! The time the cat ate my sister’s birthday cake was an unpleasant surprise. It looked okay from one side, so everybody was in “Yay, cake!” mode, but we turned it around a quarter of the cake was missing. Enter one cat covered in Cool Whip. My poor sister was devastated, and swears it was the worst birthday she’s ever had. Who knew cats liked angel food and fake whipped cream? So, um, I guess we found cat saliva. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/4 "2007-02-25T10:08:21Z")
Here in Thailand, all manner of bugs. And in the Northeast, the bugs are often the food. No joke. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/5 "2007-02-25T12:54:39Z")
I’ve been hesitant to crack open eggs since the day I discovered one with a chick inside it. This was in LA, so it’s not like I wasn’t too far removed from the farm they were taken from. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/6 "2007-02-25T13:44:34Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] [ The time the cat ate my sister’s birthday cake was an unpleasant surprise. It looked okay from one side, so everybody was in “Yay, cake!” mode, but we turned it around a quarter of the cake was missing. Enter one cat covered in Cool Whip. My poor sister was devastated, and swears it was the worst birthday she’s ever had. Who knew cats liked angel food and fake whipped cream? [/QUOTE] Hee hee hee. I think a cat covered in Cool Whip would totlatly make my birthday. Much better than a lousy cake. To the OP, it was all my fault. I was making crab puffs, and a glass broke. So while I didn’t know it there were glass shards in the puffs. No, nobody died. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/7 "2007-02-25T13:48:09Z")
Once upon a lunchtime when I was a surveyor, laying out a new Canberra suburb, I had a small carton of chocolate milk with my lunch. I guzzled it down and as I finished it something lightly tapped my front teeth. Curious, I pulled the carton apart and tipped the object out. Dave took it, pulled out his knife, we all carried one, and cut it in half. It was clearly a frog. Or as Dave referred to it, “a pasteurised, homogenized choco-lated frog.” As an aside I should mention that Dave is a country boy. He taught us all to never look at a piece of fruit between bites because you may not like what you see - just eat it and throw it away. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/8 "2007-02-25T13:54:40Z")
Several years ago, a friend and I went out to lunch at The Old Alligator Grill, in Austin. Some of you might remember it as “Chotchkies” from _Office Space_. Anyway, I ordered a muffaletta, but when I started eating it, I felt… something. I opened the sandwich and found _shards of glass_. Yikes! I showed the manager, and he was completely baffled. He said that the olive paste they use comes in a can- so he couldn’t figure out how the glass had gotten in there. He offered to get me another one. I decided to pass on that, and ordered something without the olive paste, thanks. At least he paid for our lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/9 "2007-02-25T13:56:01Z")
My brother once made a baked potato, cut it open and began eating it. Around the third bite, he chipped a tooth. On a crableg. In a potato. Don’t ask me, but now I make sure I mush my baked potatoes before I eat them. Me, I guess I am lucky, I have found clods of dirt in my frozen veggies, aphids on the vegetable platter I had to buy for a company function, bones in my “boneless” chicken breasts, and who knows what else. My worst story evar, though is from when I working at Pizza Slut in high school – on a Friday night, just at close, while running a **huge** sale on Meat Lover’s pizza, one of the make-table guys noticed that there were no actual bacon bits in the bacon bits pan. They’d been putting maggots on pizzas all night instead of bacon bits. Suffice it to say, I do **not** eat bacon bits on any pizza anywhere after that. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/10 "2007-02-25T14:20:42Z")
I had drunk a take-out cup of iced tea and eaten almost all the ice, when I discovered a fingernail in the bottom of the cup, as though someone had been trimming his/her nails in the kitchen. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/11 "2007-02-25T14:27:55Z")
I found the pop-up thermometer in a turkey dinner in a restaurant once. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/12 "2007-02-25T14:30:44Z")
I once grabbed a can of grated parmesan for my spaghetti, and poured out an impressive collection of dead ants. Put me off both spaghetti and cheese for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/13 "2007-02-25T14:33:10Z")
A few weeks ago we stopped in for a quick bite at Perkins. I ordered a Caesar side salad and after three bites I discovered the metal strainer that goes over a faucet end in the bottom of my salad. Not totally scary, but it was unexpected. They gave me a new salad and my whole meal was free. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/14 "2007-02-25T14:40:02Z")
My mom was in the hospital for back surgery and her friend brought her a box of Snickers bars (her favorite). She bit into one and it was crawling with worms. She hasn’t eaten a Snickers since. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/15 "2007-02-25T15:06:07Z")
We were having a birthday dinner at one of those Italian restaurants with the All-you-Can-Eat Salad and Breadsticks. When my Dad went to get a second bowl of the salad, he pulled an inside-out latex glove out of the bowl. It looked pretty much like the lettuce until it was picked up with the tongs. Needless to say, we had all been already eating our salads for some time at that point. Oh well, I guess it is better than them NOT using gloves to mix the salad. ---
**Author:** ![Electrical\_Storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac8455/32.png) [@Electrical\_Storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electrical_Storm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/16 "2007-02-25T15:16:15Z")
I put my spoon into my soup at Marie Callendar’s and pulled out a medium-sized piece of dirty plastic wrapping. I declined any more food and there was no charge. Around 1988 or so, my father attended some kind of retirement party (something along those lines; don’t remember too well) at a hotel party room. Dinner was served and when he pushed aside some of the gravy on his meat he encountered a small, well-cooked cockroach. (BLECH!) ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/17 "2007-02-25T15:26:24Z")
Well, not me, but hubby. We were eating lunch at a cafeteria one afternoon (there was a chain of them, gone now, called Pickadilly’s). He had gotten a strawberry and banana salad (his favorite), and on the second bite, found something crunchy. Well, bananas aren’t crunchy, and neither are strawberries. So he looked: it was an acrylic fingernail. Ewww (not as gross as maggots in place of baon bits, though). We called for the manager, who not only comped both of our meals, but said if we came in again and asked for him, he’d give us another free meal, too. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/18 "2007-02-25T15:41:29Z")
I had a bowl of _Great Grains_ cereal, and found half a honeybee. I likely had already eaten the other half. ---
**Author:** ![tiltypig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@tiltypig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiltypig)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/19 "2007-02-25T15:54:17Z")
I opened a can of Spam and the meat was dessicated and brown, and right in the middle of it, a little white maggot was sticking out its head, whipping it back and forth as though looking around. I snipped some green onions from my garden and when I brought them inside to wash them, dozens of tiny earwigs poured out from the end of each hollow green onion. I found a large piece of plastic in my soup at a restaurant, but I assume it was part of the packaging of one of the raw ingredients… cooked beans squeezed out from a big plastic bag, or something. My boyfriend was out to lunch at a Chinese restaurant with some friends. They were eating hot and sour soup, which as you known is fairly opaque, and then his friend dipped his spoon into the bowl and brought out… a dead cockroach, lying on its back, with its belly ruptured and white guts oozing out. ---
**Author:** ![tiltypig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@tiltypig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiltypig)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597/20 "2007-02-25T15:56:23Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] I had a bowl of _Great Grains_ cereal, and found half a honeybee. I likely had already eaten the other half. [/QUOTE] [Here’s a song for you!](http://www.last.fm/music/Monty+Python/_/Eric+the+Half+a+Bee) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightening-things-youve-found-in-food/393597.md?page=2)