Mealbreakers: Man Finds Bloody Bandaid In Pizza Hut Crust

Mealbreaker (n.): a nasty, non-edible surprise found in food while it is being eaten; often lawsuit-provoking, sometimes fabricated, always disgusting.

On June 9th, Ken Wieczerza of Ballston Lakes, New York, took a slice of leftover Pizza Hut out of his refrigerator and took a bite. Because the pizza was cold, its firmness was not unexpected. But there was a rubberiness to the texture that he did not expect. He spit out the pizza, and saw, to his disgust, that a bloody bandaid had been baked into the crust, according to the Albany Times Union.

He was upset, and sought recompense from Pizza Hut, but the chain did not respond. He had not planned to take the matter public, but Pizza Hut's inadequate response forced his hand, he's said. He hopes he will not develop a blood-borne illness from the bandaid.

That, my friends, is what we at HuffPost Food like to call a mealbreaker. Below are fifteen more that have cropped up in the past decade alone.

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Disemboweled Mouse In Packaged Salad

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A couple found a disembowled mouse in their Dole packaged salad mix in June 2011. They'd already started eating the salad by the time they found the mealbreaker; they promptly vomited.

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A couple found a disembowled mouse in their Dole packaged salad mix in June 2011. They'd already started eating the salad by the time they found the mealbreaker; they promptly vomited.

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This Mealbreaker

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Not So Bad Mondo Mealbreaker

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Comments

[newtom]

01:46 PM on 08/09/2011

Gives new meaning to "stuffed crust" I guess.

[lannetteramos]

04:39 AM on 08/05/2011

Pizza hut is AWFUL without the bandaid anyway. I think their sauce smells like vomit.

[3Nox]

12:26 AM on 08/04/2011

Aaaah, that tampon one is gross, but the worst has to be the syringe. That must have been so scary. I hope she got some money!

[AlsoSarah]

08:07 PM on 08/03/2011

I loved this thread. Yeah, believe it. There is alot of stuff in our food. I have found several things in my food over the years. A huge worm on the top of a can of corn, candy wrapper in a hot dog, plastic casing in frozen lasanga. I loved reading this to my daughter as she ate her dinner.

[lannetteramos]

04:48 AM on 08/05/2011

I opened a can of Bush's baked beans to find a ROACH IN it. I probably wouldn't have noticed, since the roach was thoroughly covered, except I saw the antennae sticking out from the sauce.

I needed to read this article---I was really craving an unhealthy snack, but this became my SNACK-breaker...I can hold off until a reasonable hour now :-P

[Puffin16]

04:03 PM on 08/03/2011

When I was a waitress in college I worked for Howard Johnson's. The manager would often take food out of the garbage and place it back on plates for us to take out to the customers. I refused to do it and I'd toss it back in the trash. I dared him to fire me. He didn't, but he made my life miserable.

[AlsoSarah]

08:08 PM on 08/03/2011

Anyone that has ever worked in a restaurant can tell stories. All the more reason to eat at home.

[Jeffersoda]

12:17 PM on 08/03/2011

A novel idea for a topping.

[Jeffersoda]

12:04 PM on 08/03/2011

Pizza places not to eat in: Ceci's and Andolini's. Bathrooms are filthy and personnel use them?

[bpszonka]

10:44 AM on 08/03/2011

I was a patient in the ER and could hear the man next to me tell his story. He worked at Golden Corral and had badly burned his hand. Because they were short staffed, his manager made him work through his shift. His hand was oozing and bleeding and he hadn't been able to put a glove on it because it was so swollen.

I work in food service and have experienced burns and cuts on the job. We have a policy. First, you let someone know you are injured, then first aid treatment with someone to help you, and occlusive bandages if needed. If you need the ER then you go immediately. If you are cut, the food you were working with is thrown away and all tools sanitized. We go through many boxes of gloves a week, it's food service regulation in Indiana if you prepare food to use proper gloves. Gloves do NOT take the place of hand washing. In my house, we don't eat anything that we don't prepare, however, we have such stringent practices in our work kitchen that I would trust my coworkers to prepare my food.

[AlsoSarah]

08:12 PM on 08/03/2011

I think hygiene is a personal thing. If you have a conscientious employee they ususallly practice the same at home. If a person is dirty, they will be dirty at work also. Praises to your company for adhering to good work practices.

[newtom]

01:53 PM on 08/09/2011

The fact remains... all the rules in the world aren't worth a thing if they're not followed.

Your post is proof of that.

On one hand (no pun intended) a burn victim was forced to finish his shift with a burned, oozing hand. Then you go on to cite basic kitchen safety guidelines and Indiana food safety rules which -- if they were followed -- would be a good thing. Unfortunately, they're rarely followed as closely as we would like to believe. If the empolyer doesn't care about employees' well-being or cleanliness, there's nothing to prevent all sorts of nasty stuff from happening.

[nomosnoblo]

10:06 AM on 08/03/2011

Never was a fan of Waffle House but on a trip to Florida six of us stopped in Georgia for the night and the only thing we could find open was WH. So, I ordered a waffle and eggs. The waffle looked good on top but before I eat anything, I look it over good. Several roaches had the batter poured over them and I had" 'meat "in my waffle. I called the waitress over and ask if this was extra. She grabbed the waffle and scurried off. No WH for me for over 10 years now.

[newtom]

01:57 PM on 08/09/2011

Oh good... someone mentioned Waffle House so I can tell my horror story.

Short version:
I ended up in the hospital on intravenous antibiotics with shigellosis from Waffle House food.

Avoid at all times.

[xstevejx]

10:58 PM on 08/02/2011

There are so many fraudulent cases of foreign items found in food that I really can't take any stories seriously until they are verified true.

[rini1946]

11:31 AM on 08/06/2011

yep your right

[ApolloniaBliss]

10:31 PM on 08/02/2011

The bandage is disgusting but the used tampon and condom is the worst. yuck!!!

[frank day]

08:37 PM on 08/02/2011

Learn to cook!

Even ritzy restaurants are often filthy.

Eating out isn't worth the risk.

[bgangwer1981]

05:37 PM on 08/02/2011

Pizza Hut Pizza Sucks. I havent been to one in almost 12 years. There sause is awful. The only reason I ever went was because they serve beer. Back then I lived in a small town and Pizza Hut was the only restaurant­ that served beer.

[GraphicMatt]

03:01 PM on 08/02/2011

To add insult to injury, they charged him for having an extra topping.

[johnqpublik]

01:27 PM on 08/02/2011

One time at Dairy Queen, right before the girl handed me my Blizzard, I heard her asking other employees "Has anyone seen my eyebrow ring?"

Fortunately, I was not the "lucky" customer, but it was certainly hard to enjoy my dessert.