They scan for metal parts? Wonder what other kind of crap is mixed in there..

Almost sounded like she wishes she is more hurt so she would have a case. ...Almost. ;)

It's not so bad if you pretend you're a prehistoric caveman scavenging for food on the unforgiving african savannah and have to gnaw on rodent bones in a fruitless attempt at procuring sustenance. It's a jungle out there.

Good lord that is disgusting.

I am interested to know where it came from exactly...how did it survive the processing that grains and such raw material go through to become cereal?
Sounds to me like there is no reason to panic, it's not like hot dogs and the rest of the processed crap we eat (where the rodent bones etc. are ground up better!).

In their defense, I would have to think that it is in fact 'gluten free' as the label says.

Yeah, great idea to post that on a Sunday morning while I'm eating BREAKFAST. Thanks guys.

@BugMeNot2: Metal scanners are common on automated food lines to prevent machine parts (screws and such) and other metallic detritus from getting into the food.

Its really organic!

I used to work for a paper manufacturer and we used to have metal detectors to detect anything that might have come off the manufacturing line and could harm someone. It's standard practice for any company, especially food.

Um, wow, that is gross. The reader seems to have some grace though. I'd probably be so disgusted I'd be crying my eyes out and threatening to call my lawyer.

And this is why I LOVE heavily processd food! The errant foreign bits are crushed & diced so small that you dont even notice eating it & if you DO happen to bite into something foreign.... its usually so small that you cant ID it & brush it off as something innocuous.

lol

This isn't exactly unknown. The USDA/FDA has a set handbook for determining how many parts of mice/insects can be in your food. Surprise, it isn't zero.

For example, the limits before action should be taken for rasins is:

Insects and insect eggs
(AOAC 969.42 & MPM-V76) 10 or more whole or equivalent insects and 35 Drosophila eggs per 8 oz.

Perfectly harmless, its just a cultural thing. We don't like to eat insects. Ditto with rats. They're actually quite tasty.

Although a skull is a bit outside of normal, these things to happen. Its natural food. God forbid if you actually noticed what goes into your food at the production levels.

It's gluten free, too. That's a travesty.

If nothing else I learned that I really like the phrase "rodent skull." I will be incorporating into my daily lexicon.

"You want roughage? We'll give you roughage! Bwah ha haha!"
Tho, they lose points for not having anapomorphic, grinning mousies on the package.

What? I'm OUTRAGED that no one seems to be "taking it very seriously"! Don't they care about their rodents? Errr...I mean customers?

I am glad the company was so responsive. This tops the slug in the Snapple.

I'm sure any food business would gladly give her $25,000 or so to sign an agreement not to bring this public. Isn't that was commercial insurance is for? All for nothing now....and it's a lose, lose situation

Yuk. I'm still trying to figure out how a big chunk of rodent skull would make it through grain processing. You would think that there would be something in the process that wouldn't let pieces that big through the machinery.

My suggestion would be to look up Alton Brown's granola recipe and make your own.

And where did the rest of the rodent go? It had to go somewhere. I don't think half a dead head jumped into the grain bin. They should investigate the source and pull all potentially contaminated product that might include feet, legs, the rest of the skull...

I think Sabrina has exercised considerable restraint under these really gross circumstances.

other bone chunks are probably floating around in those packages. go organic food lol!

Hilarious. I'm sure someone else has the bag with the rat's nuts in it. Wonder if they'll notice it.

She should have put it under her pillow,and wait for the rat tooth fairy.

Well at there the mix didnt have any gluten!

@pine22: Yes, because non-organic food is so much stricter on its rat parts tolerances...

I understand her disgust, but this isn't all that uncommon. Most of us are eating the ground up portions in the food we eat. Hell, the government has levels they allow manufacturers to reach, and it's higher than one might think.
When I was a kid, a box of raisin bran had bugs in it. It was disgusting and I still am apprehensive when eating Raisin Bran to this day (some 30 years later.) But I recognize that it is an issue of association with THAT particular product, and that it is a bit irrational. I have conscious knowledge that it is not, nor will it probably be the last time I eat some bugs...

I say kudos to both companies for handling this so well...

That is horrifying.

That's what you get for eating "organic" cereal. People never find rodent skulls in Lucky Charms. You wanted natural, you got natural!

Kudos to Sabrina for not freaking out or starting a million-dollar lawsuit over the whole thing. It's gross and yes, I'm sure there's liability here somewhere, but foreign matter does get into food occasionally, and there's really nothing one can do other than report the incident to the store where the cereal was purchased and to the manufacturer.

There's really nothing else to do at this point...I don't think this is a chronic problem for Bakery on Main and there weren't any serious injuries, so unless she wants to do the American thing and sue, sue, sue, Sabrina has done everything right.

1) Somewhere I read that vegetarians (of which I am one) kill more animals due to all the moles, voles, etc that get killed during harvesting

2) The company should get one of those optical scanner thingys that take a pic of every morsel of food; whatever doesn't pass the test is knocked away by a puff of air. Cape Cod chips has one of these things, it's cool as (LHR T5) to watch!

Err, I would insist on a small settlement. Period. That is disgusting.

IT BIT HER BACK. OH MY GOD. This might be the worst thing I've ever seen on Consumerist.

Maybe I'm a germaphobe, but if I cut my gums on the remains of a rat skull, I'd be going to the dentist after I went back to the grocery store.

Well, to be fair, it's really more of a rodent mandible than skull. No less disgusting, just more accurate.

@Trai_Dep:
Lots of calcium in that skull.
Good for her bones & would have prevented osteoporosis.

Dude, so many dirty hippie jokes, so little time.

I've gotten a lot more cavalier about eating bugs since I started growing my own veggies, but rodent bones is definitely where I draw the line!

Intruder alert! Intruder alert!

That vole must have had a delicious death, being buried in sweet cereal. But what is the granola manufacturing process that turns a furry, chubby hamster into a skinned, weathered half-skull? I would expect more... intact rodent from a whole-foods preparation.

@ceriphim: Actually, I've seen a fair number of rodent mandibles in my day (seriously: I had to identify Rattus, Mus, Meriones, and Microtus mandibles taken out of owl pellets), and that doesn't look like one. Mandibles are pretty narrow, and there really isn't any bone on either side of the teeth. It looks like that could be a chunk of maxilla (see images at [www.csus.edu]).

@arby: Maxilla indeed. There is some serious-rodent-roof-of-the-mouth action going on there.

And I made myself nauseated again.

There was a woman in Boston who found a mouse skull in her McNuggets. This was in the Globe, because the McD's in the story had numerous citations for having mouse droppings near the food.

Sorry but my inner editor has had it with the word "weary" used as a combination of wary & leery.

Weary = tired.
Wary and/or leery = suspicious

That is all. Please continue.

"Too small to be mouse teeth. I am thinking rat, chipmunk or squirrel!"

Umm... mice are about 10x smaller than rats. Get your rodents straight!

@LUV2CattleCall: About your first point: That's just a myth that originated as a joke. It's not true in the least.

"If we took the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?"

That's what you get for buying natural foods. I never found rodent parts in any of my many thousands of delicous bowls of Fruity Pebbles.

@bdgbill: They all died off from pebbles induced diabetes long before they had a chance to get stuck in a machine to die.

She's lucky she didn't crack a tooth on that thing...around here, a crown is running $1200. I'd be PISSED.

@cde: that is the best argument for sugary cereals I've ever heard!

(putting ChocPuffs on the grocery list)

Um, I meant ChocoPuffs, dammit.

I'm glad this consumer didn't treat it like a winning lottery ticket. I'm not sure I could have resisted the temptation (quite hypocritical).

I am very surprised the company didn't proactively try to purchase silence.

maybe it's just me, but the pre-made trail mixes invariably have one ingredient that i can't stand mixed in with a bunch of ingredients i like. so i just make my own with the stuff i like. of course, there's no guarantee i won't get a rodent skull mixed into the bag of dried cranberries or cashews ...

Like they say, where there's smoke, there's fire. Where there are nuts, there are squirrels.