dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 8,491
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on Mar 24, 2021 12:46:34 GMT
Please do not read further if you might be ill from the findings in this dude's box of cereal. NYT ArticleSpoiler alert: he ate a bowl before his discovery. ETA: Long story short, a man found shrimp tails in his CTC cereal. He contacted them and they told him it was just sugar and cinnamon. He called BS. Then went through the bag (which he bought at Costco, so the one box actually has 2 separate bags) and found string and burned black things in some of the squares of cereal. People told him it looked like a rat's stash & rat droppings. His wife told him to open the 2nd bag - which seemed to have been taped?? - it had what seemed to be dental floss in it. General Mills is gaslighting him and offered a coupon. Here's the Tweet: Jensen Karp
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,836
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on Mar 24, 2021 13:11:13 GMT
Can’t read it because of a paywall
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Post by gar on Mar 24, 2021 13:31:54 GMT
Can’t open it but it sounds horrific!! Has put me off my lunch a bit 🤢
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,295
Jun 25, 2014 22:52:46 GMT
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Post by iowgirl on Mar 24, 2021 13:58:03 GMT
I saw this on TikTok (god help me - I am deleting that app when I start my spring busy season!)
I don't know. I cry foul on this. It usually ends up with the person who found it, having put it in the box.
Or it could have been tampered with after leaving the processing plant.
Any food processor has extremely high packaging standards. Not that something can't go wrong - but if things are looking 'taped' together, someone has tampered with it beyond the factory.
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Post by mom on Mar 24, 2021 13:59:16 GMT
I read earlier that the guy who found this is married to Topanga from Boy Meets World. He's a comedian.
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Post by sleepingbooty on Mar 24, 2021 14:01:27 GMT
For a moment there, I thought this thread was going to be about some new food fad. Not gonna lie, my brain wondered which cereal was being paired with shrimp...
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Post by mollycoddle on Mar 24, 2021 14:03:01 GMT
Ugh, I cannot imagine.
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Post by mollycoddle on Mar 24, 2021 14:06:55 GMT
😁😁😁
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Post by Layce on Mar 24, 2021 14:09:09 GMT
Sounds fishy
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,295
Jun 25, 2014 22:52:46 GMT
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Post by iowgirl on Mar 24, 2021 14:12:53 GMT
VERY! On so many levels!
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Post by mollycoddle on Mar 24, 2021 14:17:05 GMT
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Post by Rainy_Day_Woman on Mar 24, 2021 14:26:21 GMT
I read earlier that the guy who found this is married to Topanga from Boy Meets World. He's a comedian. I didn't know that. I had a mad crush on Topanga when I was a kid. She was WAY too good for Cory I'm not terribly grossed out, as some seem to be. I guess I should, as my husband is highly allergic, and also eats Cinnamon Toast Crunch in inhuman quantities. I am still finding the tweets all amusing.
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DEX
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,400
Aug 9, 2014 23:13:22 GMT
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Post by DEX on Mar 24, 2021 15:38:19 GMT
Local story (General Mills). They issued a statement saying that it did not happen in manufacturing. They have asked that he send the box to GM but so far he has not.
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DEX
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,400
Aug 9, 2014 23:13:22 GMT
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Post by DEX on Mar 24, 2021 15:48:42 GMT
Can’t edit my last post but here is a statement from G
“While we are still investigating this matter, we can say with confidence that this did not occur at our facility," said Mike Siemienas, a spokesperson for General Mills. "We are waiting for the consumer to send us the package to investigate further. Any consumers who notice their cereal box or bag has been tampered with, such as the clear tape that was found in this case, should contact us."
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Post by slowrunner70 on Mar 24, 2021 17:39:18 GMT
I just read this on God's FB page.
The guy now has an independent lab testing his discoveries for DNA to determine if it is actually shrimp. If I were him, I'd do the same thing. No way would I send this back to General Mills. They were trying to tell him it was sugar clusters.
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valincal
Drama Llama
Southern Alberta
Posts: 5,778
Jun 27, 2014 2:21:22 GMT
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Post by valincal on Mar 24, 2021 17:41:52 GMT
Can’t edit my last post but here is a statement from G “While we are still investigating this matter, we can say with confidence that this did not occur at our facility," said Mike Siemienas, a spokesperson for General Mills. "We are waiting for the consumer to send us the package to investigate further. Any consumers who notice their cereal box or bag has been tampered with, such as the clear tape that was found in this case, should contact us." Why would anyone open a package that had been taped up?
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Post by katiekaty on Mar 24, 2021 17:55:12 GMT
This guy better make sure he has his story straight because if he doesn’t General Mills is gonna rip him a new one. If he thinks he’s funny with his “fishy” cereal story as a play off their names for attention to boost their crappy career level lows, I hope they have some money saved for the lawyers because they will need it!
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Post by scraphappy0501 on Mar 24, 2021 18:49:27 GMT
Can’t edit my last post but here is a statement from G “While we are still investigating this matter, we can say with confidence that this did not occur at our facility," said Mike Siemienas, a spokesperson for General Mills. "We are waiting for the consumer to send us the package to investigate further. Any consumers who notice their cereal box or bag has been tampered with, such as the clear tape that was found in this case, should contact us." Technically it could happen in manufacturing (but of course they're not going to admit it publically.) A disgruntled employee could have brought the shrimp tails into the plant and introduced them into the food stream, probably at the point where the cooked cereal squares get coated with the cinnamon and sugar, but maybe on the conveyor that takes the cereal to the packaging equipment. There are rules against this in food plants but every single employee can't be watched all of the time so it's possible it could happen. By the description from the consumer that the package had clear tape on it, it seems likely though that it happened at a distribution center or at the store itself before the consumer bought the product.
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caangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,705
Location: So Cal
Member is Online
Jun 26, 2014 16:42:12 GMT
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Post by caangel on Mar 24, 2021 18:58:14 GMT
I read earlier that the guy who found this is married to Topanga from Boy Meets World. He's a comedian. Yup, he has been in show biz for a long time, starting in music. He was on our favorite LA radio morning show for a few years, has been a writer for TV shows and has a podcast among other things. That being said I don't think this is a publicity stunt as I don't get that vibe from him.
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garcia5050
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,773
Location: So. Calif.
Jun 25, 2014 23:22:29 GMT
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Post by garcia5050 on Mar 24, 2021 19:09:28 GMT
Yes, I listened to him on morning radio for a long time. I don’t think this is a stunt. I believe that he said he sent one of the shrimp tails to GM, and kept the second tail to send for testing. I’m curious about the results.
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Post by mollycoddle on Mar 24, 2021 19:32:31 GMT
It doesn’t seem like a stunt to me either. Just saw this:
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Sarah*H
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,019
Jun 25, 2014 20:07:06 GMT
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Post by Sarah*H on Mar 24, 2021 19:35:11 GMT
Can’t edit my last post but here is a statement from G “While we are still investigating this matter, we can say with confidence that this did not occur at our facility," said Mike Siemienas, a spokesperson for General Mills. "We are waiting for the consumer to send us the package to investigate further. Any consumers who notice their cereal box or bag has been tampered with, such as the clear tape that was found in this case, should contact us." Why would anyone open a package that had been taped up? It was a two bag box purchased at Costco. The bag he opened with the shrimp and apparently rat poop and string did not have packing tape on it. Yesterday his wife pulled out the second bag to check it out and discovered the packing tape and what appears to be dental floss inside that bag. Most of the speculation I've seen said it seems likely to be the result of a rodent nest somewhere along the line.
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Post by scraphappy0501 on Mar 24, 2021 21:42:05 GMT
Why would anyone open a package that had been taped up? It was a two bag box purchased at Costco. The bag he opened with the shrimp and apparently rat poop and string did not have packing tape on it. Yesterday his wife pulled out the second bag to check it out and discovered the packing tape and what appears to be dental floss inside that bag. Most of the speculation I've seen said it seems likely to be the result of a rodent nest somewhere along the line. If it was a rodent nest issue a black light would pick that up pretty quickly - rodent urine fluoresces under black light. I work in a cereal plant (not for GM) and investigate consumer complaints all the time. My guesses (if it did truly happen at the plant and not tampering once the product left the plant) - the shrimp could be from employee tampering. I don't know how GM's plant is set up, but if the shrimp came in with a cereal raw material there's no way it would survive the cereal-making process intact. If it came in with one of the cinnamon and sugar coating ingredients (the coating goes on after the cereal itself is made, before the cereal goes into the package) it should have been caught on screens those ingredients pass through (assuming GM has those in their facility.) The "rat feces" look too small to come from a rat - I'd call them "mouse droppings". But they're likely small burnt pieces of cereal that stuck to the larger cereal pieces. I can't go into specifics but those small types of burnt material can happen in the process that's used to make products like this. The "dental floss" could be small pieces of the packaging material. The cereal bags are formed from a roll of film that is made into the bag right as the cereal is going into it (form-fill-seal machine) and then the film sealed and cut so that the top of one bag and the bottom of the next bag are sealed as one piece then cut in the middle to create two separate bags. If the cutting/sealing device gets off a little it's possible there could be a thin piece of film formed that could go into the next bag and it would look like dental floss. Working in the food industry this story fascinates me - I can't wait to see how it all turns out!
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dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 8,491
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on Mar 24, 2021 21:47:20 GMT
Working in the food industry this story fascinates me - I can't wait to see how it all turns out! I was just about to post that YOUR post was fascinating!! I love "behind the scenes" type stuff like what you just laid out. Thank you!
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Post by papersilly on Mar 24, 2021 22:03:20 GMT
when i learned that food manufacturers can include rat droppings, lint, etc. as a certain % of their products, i completely lost faith in the quality of processed food. i still buy it, of course, but i can't help but wonder what else is in my food every time i take a bite.
this is like the video i saw of the disposable masks being made in india and the workers had filthy hands, the masks were dropped and stacked onto dirty floors and there was no sterile handling of the products. and this they expect us to put on our faces. nope. i bought washable masks after seeing that.
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