Rodent Hairs, Fly Maggot Mouth Hook Parts, Cleaning Solvents, Pesticides, Glass, Pebbles, Plastic and ...

[flyinglentris]

The stories hit the news every now and then, stories about food contamination, either in foods at the grocery stores or at home, due to lack of good sanitation. There are stories of restaurant chains being sued by customers who later were found to have intentionally slipped a cut off human thumb into a fast food meal.

Food contaminants come in three categories, biological, chemical and substance, and object or material.

Biological contaminants range from viruses, bacteria, mold, fungus, worms to hair and insect body parts.

Chemical and substance contaminants range from pesticides, food additives and preservatives, hormones to household cleaning solvents and other toxic substances.

Object and Material contaminants include glass, plastic and metal scraps from factory processing and packaging, to just about anything that may have found its way into a food product, from pebbles, shot pellets and so forth.

 

[Timenspace]

Once at a local supermarket I had a stew takeaway, and found a plastic fragment in it, it was very surprising and unpleasant. i don't think I ever took stew again there...
In the media recently, a couple of last months, there are a lot of withdrawals of food items due to exaggerated this or that...terrible...
JAS_OH1 posted about hygiene, that was eye opening.
Don't know what the main bug is, lack of control? HUman mistakes? All together...I don't find it overwhelming, but did notice it.

 

[JAS_OH1]

I actually was/am a product retrieval and withdrawal specialist for a major corporation (RQA--Retail Quality Assurance) that handles large scale recalls for food and retail product companies, as well as consumer complaints (there was a tooth in my Planter's nuts bag--true story). Due to the pandemic I am on a long unpaid leave (they love me and won't fire me, LOL). But I have seen some doozies in my lifetime between that and my other job as a retail merchandiser for regional grocery chains. And my previous restaurant experience in my 20s. There are a lot of things going on in kitchens and the backrooms of grocery stores and warehouses that you just don't want to know about.

Ravenna woman finds bloody human tooth in bag of cashews

The courier was me.

 

[KitKat]

I actually was/am a product retrieval and withdrawal specialist for a major corporation (RQA--Retail Quality Assurance) that handles large scale recalls for food and retail product companies, as well as consumer complaints (there was a tooth in my Planter's nuts bag--true story). Due to the pandemic I am on a long unpaid leave (they love me and won't fire me, LOL). But I have seen some doozies in my lifetime between that and my other job as a retail merchandiser for regional grocery chains. And my previous restaurant experience in my 20s. There are a lot of things going on in kitchens and the backrooms of grocery stores and warehouses that you just don't want to know about.

Ravenna woman finds bloody human tooth in bag of cashews

The courier was me.

GROSS! Eeewwww!

 

[flyinglentris]

Here is an old news story about the woman who intentionally planted a severed human thumb/finger in fast food and tried to sue the food chain.

Wendy's Chili Finger Lady

 

[JAS_OH1]

GROSS! Eeewwww!

Yeah, that's about the worst one I ever had to personally deal with involving a customer face-to-face. I believe she was telling the truth.

But recalls I handled for (major dog food company) where dogs were getting sick and dying from eating dog food made in China that contained ingredients that were toxic to dogs were very sad, and also the (major peanut butter producer) recall because of salmonella, I think that one sickened over 100 people before they sent us out to canvass stores and get it off the shelves ASAP. And one recall there was chemical contamination from wood pallets that somehow got inside of the lids of (major drug company) pain relief bottles, which made the pills smell bad and a few people got sick.

I figured I had better not name anymore company names here, those companies have tried long and hard to overcome bias against their products due to these issues, though easy enough for anyone to do a Google search to find out which companies I am referring to. The Planter's incident, well that was an isolated incident. The other companies had problems all over the country and I was just one of many specialists working on those projects. I got to do a bit of paid traveling and learned my way around Ohio very well in particular.

Whee, fun fun!

 

[TastyReuben]

Once, I found a piece of cardboard in a bag of salad. That's not really a biggie.

We were eating at Cracker Barrel outside St. Louis and found the ID bracelet of one of the line cooks in my hashbrown casserole. That was hilarious in retrospect, because the restaurant manager was terrified I'd trash them on FB, but he didn't want to give me anything for the incident, so he kept coming back to the table and offering me this and that.

 

[JAS_OH1]

Once, I found a piece of cardboard in a bag of salad. That's not really a biggie.

We were eating at Cracker Barrel outside St. Louis and found the ID bracelet of one of the line cooks in my hashbrown casserole. That was hilarious in retrospect, because the restaurant manager was terrified I'd trash them on FB, but he didn't want to give me anything for the incident, so he kept coming back to the table and offering me this and that.

There was this one lady who called and complained to (well-known food producer) about a piece of macaroni in her can of pineapple, and of course they sent me out. I drove 200 miles to go pick up the product, bag it, pack it, and ship it. It was spring and the weather was quite lovely. I could tell by looking at her face she was most likely lying. But we have a no comment policy so as she spun her story (how does macaroni get into a can of pineapple in a fruit canning factory) I just smiled and nodded and said things like, "Oh, okay," and "Oh, alright then," and then thanked her for her time, got the required signatures, and off I went back home office to finalize the details. I never know what happens after I leave there. If they ask me questions I just tell them I am a 3rd party courier and I do not work for (name of whatever company) and if they have any questions, refer to the phone number and contact information on the paperwork I leave with them.

There were some pretty cool projects I worked on where no one got hurt from it. Lipton and Knorr Swiss had merged and they make these side dishes with flavored rice and noodles that are pretty popular. They neglected to include on the ingredient panel that some of the packages contained dairy (dehydrated milk), so they had to recall them. And another time I had to collect thousands of boxes of Snickers, M&M cookie/candy bars because they neglected to put on the packaging that the product contained nuts. I had to take out the seats of my van for that one.

 

[KitKat]

The worst was when we ordered a birthday cake for a co-worker and it was full of little gnats or flies. I had my slice on my desk and picked two bites out of it before we were alerted. That taught me to examine my food form external sources ad nauseum. Another was a wood chip in fresh bagels we bought. A piece of hair in my food from restaurants, ewwwww (nothing but an apology and an offer of free dessert which we did not want from one venue and a total comp for the meal from the other). A wood chip in freshly baked bagels.

 

[JAS_OH1]

The worst was when we ordered a birthday cake for a co-worker and it was full of little gnats or flies. I had my slice on my desk and picked two bites out of it before we were alerted. That taught me to examine my food form external sources ad nauseum. Another was a wood chip in fresh bagels we bought. A piece of hair in my food from restaurants, ewwwww (nothing but an apology and an offer of free dessert which we did not want from one venue and a total comp for the meal from the other). A wood chip in freshly baked bagels.

I once (as a customer) was at the bakery in one of our grocery stores and the donut case was full of gnats, or fruit flies, or whatever (small flying insects). The donuts were still inside of the case. I asked the bakery associate about it and they said, "Well we cleaned it out and refilled it, but they came back (hello, fly eggs and maggots are really small and you didn't get them all). I told her that was a health hazard and they should not be selling food with flies in the case, and she shrugged and said, "Well, my bakery manager didn't tell me to do anything else with it," and she went back to her cake decorating. So I went to customer service and got the store director to go look, we walked over together, he was horrified and he made her stop writing, "Happy Birthday," and take care of it ASAP. He apologized profusely and in an embarrassed manner to me and then went into the back room near the bakery and I heard him speaking loudly and harshly to someone (assuming it was the bakery manager). I left quickly, LOL. I never shopped in the bakery at that store again.

 

[TastyReuben]

I think I mentioned this before, but right after moving here in 2004, I was in Walmart and went to the deli for some bologna.

The woman working the deli was breading and frying raw chicken, and when she came over to take my order, I expected her to wash her hands, but she just grabbed the big loaf of lunchmeat, started slicing, catching all the slices in her bare raw chicken hand, wrapped it up and tossed it to me.

I went straight to customer service, explained what happened and have never bought anything but the essentials at WM since then.

 

[JAS_OH1]

I think I mentioned this before, but right after moving here in 2004, I was in Walmart and went to the deli for some bologna.

The woman working the deli was breading and frying raw chicken, and when she came over to take my order, I expected her to wash her hands, but she just grabbed the big loaf of lunchmeat, started slicing, catching all the slices in her bare raw chicken hand, wrapped it up and tossed it to me.

I went straight to customer service, explained what happened and have never bought anything but the essentials at WM since then.

"Hello, I will have a 1/2 pound of bologna with a side of salmonella, please."

Good thing I always heat my turkey up to melt the cheese on it before I make a sandwich. I think at our store they wear food handling gloves? I am ordering online so I am just guessing...might have to skip the deli turkey from here on out and find something else for lunch sandwiches.

 

[JAS_OH1]

Here is an old news story about the woman who intentionally planted a severed human thumb/finger in fast food and tried to sue the food chain.

Wendy's Chili Finger Lady

That puts a new twist on their "Where's the beef" slogan they used to use!

 

[rascal]

I think I mentioned this before, but right after moving here in 2004, I was in Walmart and went to the deli for some bologna.

The woman working the deli was breading and frying raw chicken, and when she came over to take my order, I expected her to wash her hands, but she just grabbed the big loaf of lunchmeat, started slicing, catching all the slices in her bare raw chicken hand, wrapped it up and tossed it to me.

I went straight to customer service, explained what happened and have never bought anything but the essentials at WM since then.

Turkey has never really taken off here, never seen it in a deli, if I did I would buy it, I love it, with cranberry jelly. We have it once a year at Xmas. Shame really!!

Russ

 

[JAS_OH1]

Turkey has never really taken off here, never seen it in a deli, if I did I would buy it, I love it, with cranberry jelly. We have it once a year at Xmas. Shame really!!

Russ

Oh yeah, I love turkey. Maybe you should get some turkey chicks and raise them yourself? You might be on to a new NZ food craze! Maybe you aren't the only one who loves it there?