Traces of horsemeat has been found in burgers in Ireland and the UK this week to the disgust of many carnivores. But horsemeat could actually be considered the lesser of many evils.
There have been many strange things found in food over the years, from both the manufacturing side and the consumers side. Lets take a look at some of the more 'unusual' things found in our food.
If you ever want to eat again you may not want to read on...
Arsenic. Farms feed chickens and pigs arsenic to help ward off infections in the filthy living conditions and to turn their flesh the pink shade that is considered appetizing.
Calf stomach lining. Many cheeses are made with rennet, an enzyme taken from calves' stomach lining.
Pus. Cows on dairy farms often suffer from mastitis, a painful inflammation of the udders caused by bacteria. Their bodies try to fight off the infection by producing pus, and guess where the pus goes? Into the milk.
Pink slime. The now famous picture of what looks like the result of a kid smashing all his Play-Doh together is actually mechanically separated meat, a main ingredient in many processed meats such as chicken nuggets and hot dogs. It's made by sending animals' bones through a machine that scrapes off the last bits of flesh and blood, forming the bits into a paste, and then treating the mass with ammonia, dyeing it, and adding flavor to it.
Pooh. When animals' intestines are opened during slaughter, faeces can spill out onto their flesh.
Industrial runoff. People might want to avoid eating fish, who are contaminated with the pollutants that run into waterways from our tanneries, factories, and industrial plants, as well as manure runoff from pastures.
Outside of the oddities found in the large scale manufacturing of food products, we also find indiviual cases of food nightmares....
Dead mouse found in a Curry Sauce. When Cate Barrett bought a jar of tikka masala sauce from her local Asda store, she was expecting it to contain a bit of a kick. But what she wasn't expecting to find was the dead mouse which had somehow ended up in the jar - along with the rest of her favorite sauce.
Finger found in frozen custard. A man found part of a severed finger packed inside a pint of frozen custard he'd bought from a Kohl's Frozen Custard shop, and officials said it belonged to a worker injured in a food-processing machine accident there. The customer, Clarence Stowers, said he put the finger in his mouth, thinking it was a piece of candy when he opened the pint at home.
Human flesh found in sandwich. In 2005, a Miami man was dining at his local Arby's when he found a piece of skin in his chicken sandwich. No, not chicken skin — the substance was allegedly a dangling piece of flesh about three-fourths of an inch long. "It looked like I was seeing fingerprints on it," he said. "I got sick and went to the bathroom." Health investigators talked to the restaurant manager, who noted that he was wearing a bandage on his right thumb. The manager said he had sliced the thumb while shredding lettuce, but had dumped the bin per standard safety procedure.
Oven glove found in Hovis loaf. A woman in Northern Ireland discovered part of an oven glove baked into her slice of bread - and she didn't even notice it until she began eating it. The loaf had been bought from a local shop just before Christmas.
Pooh found in ice cream. A family accused chefs of serving pooh in their ice cream after they complained about noise during a football match. A bitter row broke out between them and one of Sydney's largest tourist pubs. State government food minister Ian Macdonald confirmed that frozen faecal matter had been found in a serving of chocolate gelato offered to placate pub patron Steve Whyte and his wife Jessica, who became "violently ill" after eating it.
Chicken head found in McDonald's Happy Meal. An American mother ordered two Happy Meals with chicken for her children and a hamburger with fries for herself. The mother decided to have one of her childrens chicken nuggets when her 8-year old son yelled not to eat it. Her nugget was the perfect shape of a deep fried chicken's head.
7-inch knife found in a Subway Bun. A Queens N.Y. man sued his local Subway restaurant after he made a frightening discovery that gives new meaning to his former favorite, the Italian cold-cut trio: a knife baked right into the bun.
Dead frog found in a Diet Pepsi can. Fred DeNegri was grilling in his backyard when he cracked open a can of Diet Pepsi, took a thirsty gulp and immediately started gagging. The flavor of his Pepsi was rank and the texture was thick like slime. He immediately took it to a sink and shook out the contents until something resembling "pink linguini" slid out, followed by "dark stuff”. Despite persistent shaking, a heavy object remained inside the can. Completely disgusted, the DeNegris immediately called poison control and the FDA, and the can was taken in for lab testing to identify the source of the sludgy mess. The couple received a copy of the completed report from the Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Affairs, which concluded the foreign matter appeared to be a frog or a toad.
Condom found in clam chowder. In Feb. 2002 a woman was eating a bowl of clam chowder at a McCormick and Schmick's seafood restaurant in Irvine, CA, when she bit down on something rubbery. She thought it was a piece of calamari, but when she spit it out into her napkin she discovered that it was a condom.
Mouse baked into bread. Stephen Forse bought the bread from a store in Bicester, in January 2009. He was shocked to find a dead mouse in his loaf of bread while making sandwiches for his children. Premier Foods, which makes the bread, was fined £16,821.14 after the firm admitted it had failed to ensure all stages of food production were protected against contamination.
Right who's hungry?
