# Something weird in your food ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302 "2014-07-03T21:06:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/1 "2014-07-03T21:06:56Z")
… that clearly does not belong there (by any standards). Restaurant, tv dinner, local sport happening stand, your mommas cooking … And by any standards “waiter, I ordered blueberry cream brulee and there is clearly raspberry in it!” does not count. What counts? Everything from cook hair(s) in soup to fried flies in french fries, snails in salad, strangely eaten cookies, college yogurt pranks and chicken heads at big arches. How did you react? Personal quirks? Anecdotes? ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/2 "2014-07-03T21:35:39Z")
I bit down on something weird at a restaurant once…it was a piece of wire from a dental retainer. Yuck. I don’t get squicked out very easily, but did call this to our server’s attention. They replaced the meal, comped everything my dining companion and I had, and the manager came out to grovel and apologise. No harm done and the establishment acted appropriately, so it was fine. We went back there many times afterwards too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/3 "2014-07-03T22:15:42Z")
I once ordered some sort of dish of seafood, breaded and deep-fried, and found a fly deep-fried onto one of the pieces. I called for a manager, showed it to him, and he asked whether I’d prefer a full refund, or a replacement of the food. I’d rather lost my appetite, so I took the refund. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/4 "2014-07-03T23:00:16Z")
Once I found an inch worm in my salad. I took it as a sign of the salad being fresh. i just pushed the salad aside and didn’t say anything. I was with a group of people who would have over reacted to it. Once I found a cigarette butt in my fried rice. GROSS! I never ate at that place again. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/5 "2014-07-03T23:46:40Z")
I found a staple in in a Reuben sandwich (a large one, probably from a commercial food package). I mentioned it nicely to the waitress, who did not seem I interested. No refund or substitution was offered. I let it go. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/6 "2014-07-04T00:10:55Z")
Found a petrified caterpillar in a box of Cheerios. Found a rock in a frozen pot pie dinner. Had a fly doing the backstroke up through the parmesan cheese at a pizza joint once. Could see him through the clear plastic trying to get to the top, after getting trapped in a refill. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/7 "2014-07-04T00:21:17Z")
Some unknown species of worm that had been chewing it’s way through an ear of corn before being cooked and delivered to me. I pointed it out to the staff who promptly replaced the ear and I was more than happy with this. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/8 "2014-07-04T00:30:14Z")
A few years ago, I found a bolt in the nacho cheese sauce at a steak and salad bar place, and about two months ago, a grilled chicken sandwich came with a piece of wire that was apparently part of a grill brush. The restaurants both handled the surprise ingredients appropriately with concern that I’d been injured. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/9 "2014-07-04T00:34:12Z")
> [@seal\_cleaner](#): > > I found a staple in in a Reuben sandwich (a large one, probably from a commercial food package). I mentioned it nicely to the waitress, who did not seem I interested. No refund or substitution was offered. I let it go. I had a staple in a sub sandwich once (local sub shop that I used to eat at a lot in college). When I showed it to the girl at the counter, she cheerfully explained “Yeah our stapler is on a shelf over the make table. That happens to me all the time!” I did get a free sandwich out of it, and suggested that they might want to find a different place to keep their stapler. ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/10 "2014-07-04T01:14:34Z")
I narrowly missed eating a good-sized piece of jagged glass in some green bean casserole. This happened at a potluck. It turns out the lid to the casserole dish was chipped around the rim and some pieces of broken glass fell into the casserole. I put a forkful in my mouth and I felt like something was wrong, so fortunately I didn’t bite down on it. That mouthful of beans had a piece of glass in it and there was more in the green bean casserole on my plate. The person who brought the green bean casserole to the potluck did not apologize even one tiny little bit. :mad: If this happened at a restaurant I’d never go there again. Potlucks made me a bit nervous for a while, but now it doesn’t bother me. I seem to have lost my taste for green bean casserole though. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/11 "2014-07-04T01:25:23Z")
I found a piece of aluminum foil in some Chinese food. The reaction from the waiter was along the lines of “Why are you telling me this?” ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/12 "2014-07-04T01:33:34Z")
A roach in my coffee, which I discovered when it was in my mouth. :eek: The coffee was from a coffee machine at the place I was working. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/13 "2014-07-04T13:03:59Z")
Once, at the bottom of a Thai duck salad, I found a used bandaid. Still molded to fit the fingertip it had fallen off of. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/14 "2014-07-04T13:39:06Z")
We receive bananas in 40 lb. boxes at the grocery store where I work at. It’s surprisingly common to find a mummified frog tucked away inside one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/15 "2014-07-04T16:02:00Z")
A little pile of plastic at the bottom of a pub curry - like a heap of what you’d get if you holepunched a sandwich bag. The manager was mystified as that type of plastic didn’t feature at all in their kitchen. The meal was comped, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/16 "2014-07-04T16:13:17Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I had a staple in a sub sandwich once (local sub shop that I used to eat at a lot in college). When I showed it to the girl at the counter, she cheerfully explained “Yeah our stapler is on a shelf over the make table. That happens to me all the time!” Must be her staple diet. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/17 "2014-07-04T16:32:15Z")
A friend once found a piece of plastic wrap/baggie inside a hotdog. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/18 "2014-07-04T17:09:16Z")
A rusty 3" needle in a zinger when I was 14. My mom just shrugged her shoulders and told me not to finish eating it. Two months later the whole let’s sue over weird stuff in commercially packaged food boom hit. (It was so much in the news Friends even parodied it.) I could have had my college education paid for from that rusty needle, dang it. My mom isn’t horrified enough by weird things, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/19 "2014-07-05T00:41:25Z")
Chewed gum in coleslaw at a fish fry; staples in frozen peas; rusty hairpin in a returnable bottle of soda; plus, innumerable pieces of plastic which I could tell were either off processing equipment or else off packaging material. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302/20 "2014-07-05T01:13:42Z")
A big cardboard-box-style staple in a dish of tortellini and sauce I was eating. The restaurant did not seem to be bothered by this revelation, but I was, so it was the last time I went to that restaurant. I think maybe this was not the least of their problems, as they went out of business a few months later. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-weird-in-your-food/692302.md?page=2)