Mealbreaker (n.): a nasty, non-edible surprise found in food while it is being eaten; often lawsuit-provoking, sometimes fabricated, always disgusting.
A German man got an unpleasant early morning surprise when he found mummified bat in his bowl of cereal.
According to Metro U.K., the incident was reported to health officials in the man's hometown of Stuttgart in order to discover how the bat managed to get into the box of Mini-Zimties -- an organic, corn flakes-like cereal made with corn chips, cinnamon and brown sugar.
The Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Offices (CVUA) in Stuttgart released a report saying the bat could have gotten trapped in the cereal box, which would have become a "death trap," according to a Google translation of the document.
The report also pointed out that it was extremely unlikely that the bat could have gotten through the manufacturing and sealing process at the cereal factory. Food safety official Jorg Sturmer said, "I have never seen anything like it. This really is an unusual case," according to Metro.
Earlier this month, a British man had a similar shock when he poured out a dead mouse into his bowl of Rice Krispies.
“I was horrified because I’d already had one mouthful and was about to have a second," Mark Hunter told The Mirror. “I saw this dark shape appear in the milk, but I didn’t realize what it was until I fished it out with my spoon.”
A British woman also had quite a scare this September, when she discovered a live frog in a bag of pre-packaged salad.
"I'm absolutely mortified to think I ate the leaves at lunch time when clearly the frog had been in the same bag," Christina Carrington told Metro U.K. The amphibian had survived in the plastic bag for more than 24 hours, according to the report.
In a statement, Hampshire grocery store Waitrose said, "We are very sorry for the distress caused," the BBC reports. "All our bagged salad is thoroughly washed and we have steps in place to check each product before packaging.
"Although this is an isolated incident, we're investigating with our suppliers how this happened and taking steps to further minimize the chances of this happening again," the statement continued.
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