Allen's Bribes Customers Who Find Dead Rat Heads In Their Italian Green Beans
Texas wedding caterer Dale Cane found a dead rat's head in one of the twenty cans of Allen's Italian Green Beans he bought at Walmart. Allen's quickly offered Cane $200 if he agreed to keep quiet, and assured him that "the Pasteurization process renders the product sterile and completely safe for consumption." Even worse, this isn't the first time a dead rat's head popped up in a can of Allen's Green Beans...
Last year, a rat head surprised a Utah woman when she opened her can of Allen's Italian Green Beans. That rat head earned its finder, Marianne Watson, an offer of $100 if she agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she didn't.
Despite the bribes, Allen's has nothing but confidence in their canning process:
Dear Mr. (redacted)
We are aware of the recent allegations regarding our product. However, we can confirm that the details released by the media are not accurate. We have spoken with the gentleman making the allegations but as of this date, none of the allegations have been confirmed as fact. What we can tell you is that because green beans grow out-of-doors and must be harvested by mechanical pickers close to the ground, it is not uncommon that field debris, insects and field pests may be present in the product when it is harvested and delivered to our plant for processing. Realizing this, we have equipped our production lines to rigorously wash and inspect raw product a half dozen times. Before filling the cans, they are inverted and steam flushed to assure cleanliness. The product is then filled into the cans with liquid, capped and cooked to the level of Pasteurization right inside the hermetically sealed cans, rendering the complete contents of the can commercially sterile. We utilize extensive quality control measures including technologically advanced equipment and trained inspectors. Just a few of the processes we utilize are quality checkpoints including blowers, de-stoning equipment, high pressure washers, metal detection and technically sensitive equipment, which scans the product for color and texture variances, rejecting any off-color object. Our company exceeds all FDA Requirements for food processing. In addition, we are constantly exploring new processes to improve our quality.
Quite honestly, we are at a loss to explain how something like this could have escaped our quality control measures and could have gotten through the rigorous quality process and into a can of our product. We want to assure you that our plants are extremely clean and our processes quite thorough. Allens places strong emphasis on quality assurance, utilizing competent, well-trained people and the best equipment in our plants and Corporate Laboratory. Our company packs millions of cans of product each year and I want to assure you that an incident such as this is extremely rare.
Although we have not had a chance to fully investigate this matter nor hear back on the results from the independent laboratory, we do know and can confirm scientifically that had there been any foreign material inside of the can, due to the stringent cooking process, the complete contents of the can would have been commercially sterile and would not have posed any sort of health hazard or threat to the public. Again, the Pasteurization process renders the product sterile and completely safe for consumption. While it is our goal that our products be aesthetically pleasing to our Customers, incidents such as this pose no health hazard or risk. Obviously this is a raw commodity grown in a field and as such, is subject to exposures that occur within nature. The FDA governs our processes and recognizes that there is no measure within the canning industry to prevent incidents of foreign material from entering the product 100% of the time.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your concerns. We sincerely hope that you will give our Company another chance.
Sincerely,
Kathy Turner
Manager, Consumer Relations
Corporate Services Department
ALLENS, INC.
PO Box 250
Siloam Springs, AR 72761
kturner@allens.com
As for Walmart... well, according to spokesman Phillip Keene:
Food safety is a top priority at Wal-Mart. We take customer concerns seriously.
Man who found rat head in beans says canner told him contents of can would have been safe to consume [Beaumont Enterprise]
Utah Woman Also Finds Rat Head In Green Bean Can [KFDM]
(Photo: KFDM)
Attention, Walmart shoppers! This ad is for you! Woo hoo!
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Comments:
What's worse than finding a rat in your Italian green beans?
Finding half a rat...
Ahahahahahahaha at Wal-Mart's response.
Of course they do!
besides the only thing Wal-mart takes seriously is making money.
It sounds like they're saying that while finding a rat head is gross, it's cooked to the point where it isn't unsanitary (although amazingly gross).
Are corporations wrong for offering money to someone after the customer expresses that they're unsatisfied over something?
I do love their explanation. It basically tells you this food is grown outside exposed to nature. A lot of stuff has touched it, get over it. That is why we sterilize every can. The risk to you, zero. I agree with Allen's, you all need to get over it. And as for walmart, who cares. This complaint was stupid and therefore a stupid response is warranted.
top priority as usual
@rjgnyc: They're not offering money because the customer is dissatisfied. They're offering money to shut the customer up.
Is it bad that it made me laugh to read that it was a dead rat's head, as opposed to a non-dead rat's head?
I agree that it is something that happens, but I'd be hard pressed to buy from a brand I'd found a dead animal's entire head in.
There are far worse things on people's own unwashed hands.
Concerned_Citizen are u serious, so it shouldnt be a big deal if rat heads show up in our cans of food, as long as they are sterile, no no you cannot be serious im sorry that would be too absurd for you to actually think that would be ok for rat heads to be in our food
otherwise you cannot have any idea of the danger of disease a rat poses, hell you can die just from rat urine, never mind ingest the rat itself
@rasbill:
I talked with a guy once that worked in a plant where they can peas. He said if the boss rides them too much and they have a bad day, they all stand up and pee in the peas after he leaves.
I told him that was disgusting and possibly criminal, but he felt he was "getting back at his boss". And then told me it's probably in my best interest to not eat peas that came from that plant.
To this day I've never eaten peas again.
There are much worse things that a sterile rat head.
I LOVE that Allen's offered up a whopping 200 bucks to keep this quiet -- did they just scrounge around in couch cushions and coat pockets to come up with that particular dollar amount?
"Hey, maybe we can sweeten the pot for you a little -- how would you like a free can of our delicious green beans, PLUS the 200 smackers? ...there may be a prize inside..."
As disgusting as this is, what's wrong with Allen's offering the person $200? What else are they supposed to do? Other than giving the person $200 and not asking for a non-disclosure agreement, maybe.
Good to know a wedding caterer is buying canned green beans a Wal-Mart. You stay classy Texas!
@ClankBoomSteam: I think by offering only $200, it looks as though, "okay, shit happens, we're sorry." instead of offering up $50,000 and making themselves look guilty for something they obviously can't control 100%.
@Dakine: Trouble is, the $200 was offered in exchange for not talking about it --it obviously wasn't enough to encourage the 'victim' to keep his mouth shut, so Allen's is left looking like both a company that's willing to offer hush money, and a company that's too cheap or too dumb to do it right. Wow.
No, Consumerist, no. PLEASE, PLEASE put these pictures under the jump. With a warning.
I can't even read about this but suffice to say, I think that anything Allen's offered was not enough,
That's a pretty small bribe! You'd think they'd offer at least $500 if not more! It'd be worth it to keep the reputation from being sullied even more since it has already happened before (another rat head found in that Utah woman's can of beans).
Cheap bastards!
Still, i don't think it's really that big of a deal. It's not a perfect system. Nobody is growing beans in a lab. We eat stuff that is inherently filthy. Chickens are nasty animals. Pigs live in their own shit. We pet our dogs while eating a bag of chips. There are insect parts in just about everything you can think of.
But because it's a rat head, it gets top billing. Where i live the rats live in the trees. There are lizards everywhere crapping on everything. Mongoose running around digging through the trash, centipedes, roaches......
it's a filthy world. It sounds to me like this guy was looking to score big money off it, and Allen's didn't play that game. He probably put the rat head in there himself.
Even more disgusting, what kind of wedding caterer serves canned food from Wal-Mart? That's the bigger crime here.
Heh...and I just finished reading Fast Food Nation, how apropros. At least with beans you can SEE what's not supposed to be in there. Now think about all those yummy wieners and burgers out there...
I thin I just lost my lunch.
"Oh Mom there are green beans in my can of rat soup!"
Did they look inside the head for the secret decoder ring?
With the massive flooding in the midwest, we may all have to start looking at the "other other white meat" very soon: Rat.
We have plenty of rat in this country..... enough to feed everyone. When corn goes higher than oil, rat is gonna start looking pretty damn delicious.
Ugh, this wedding caterer is serving crappy canned beans from Walmart? I hate crappy wedding food!
Dakine dude your just twisted, were all trying to live in a modern society, glad to know your weist deep in lizard shit though
Having worked in the commercial pest control and food safety field for many years, I can tell you what Allen's company said is exactly right. There is no way to 100% prevent this from happening, the consumer is the last level of quality control and compared to what food safety practices where 100 or even 10 years ago, American made food is the safest in the world! Food processing automation comes with problems, but as long as the company (should have less vague, but due to liability laws in this country) owned up to the accident in which it did and gave the public an education of what happened they have done the right thing. Now ask why did PETCO allow their ongoing rodent problem infest so much product and where was their Pest Control supplier?! Human or animal is still food.
@hypoxia: thank you! I thought I was the only one wondering that! Then i realized its Texas. The beans wereprobably meant to go with the armadillo entree.
I found a frog once in a can of Green Giant Green Beans. I was turned off from canned vegetables (and fruit) from that day on and now I only eat frozen or fresh.
Sorry Carey, but I fail to see how this is Wal-mart's fault at all. They bought the beans under the impression that Allen's gave them. Seriously editors on here mention wal-mart in anything they can. Reminds me of how bush uses the words terror and 9/11, in converstions that have nothing to do with either one.
Wal-mart doesn't own the factory, nor employ any rogue rat agents to infiltrate canned beans. I just don't see how Wal-mart could have avoided this other than not sell that name brand. And still how would they have know that this brand contained rat heads? I'm sure it wasn't advertised to them that way. Plus I'd be willing to bet that other stores besides Wal-mart sells the same beans.
How this is Wal-mart's fault is beyond me.
I have ate a Wendy's since the whole finger in the chili, and remember how that turned out folks?- It was bullshit. someone who didn't work for wendy's put the finger there (their friend had previously lost) and basically tried to get some free money.
@snoop-blog: If Wal-mart wanted out of their contract with Allen's they could have put the rat head in there to give them reason to terminate early.
@hypoxia: Probably the one working for the wedding couple where they're all wearing "cowboy" attire, the bride rides in on a horse and they ride off together, newly married in his Ford pickup with the "groomsmen" shooting rifles in the air as they drive off into the dusty sunset.
Rednecks my good man... rednecks.
(I can say that cause I are one.)
In another thought... does allen's have a plant near petco?
if this were a Chinese wedding that would be a delicacy.
If Kathy Turner says it is safe to consume then how come she won't eat it? Uhm, cause it's fucking disgusting>
Did the lable metion any thing about a free prize in every can?
I have a hard time believing the rat got caught up in the process from the field. It is more likely the rat got caught up in the process in the manufacturing facility and that is far more gross. It is also why the FDA shut down that Petco distribution center. It is a health hazard. Even if you want to believe their nonsense about the rat head being sterile from being canned the beans are clearly unpure. There are also standards of how much non food can be in a product before the FDA see's it as unfit for consumption. There is some quotient of how many rat hairs can be in peanut butter.
Walmart becomes an issue because they pressure their vendors to cut corners in order to lower wholesale costs to Walmart. I would guess that Walmart may be the only customer Allen's has.
Canned green beans in a wedding buffet? Ewwh.
I've eaten rat, and frankly, it was better than canned green beans.
The $200 doesn't sound like enough but it may be why we've never heard a story about somebody finding a rat's ass in their beans. I'd like to know, though, if one end of the rat gets you a bigger paycheck than the other.
You can have quality or you can have cheap.....Walmart sells cheap at any cost and this is what you get. Cheap may be OK for t-shirts and baby bibs but quality is what you want for eating.
"Food safety is a top priority at Wal-Mart. We take customer concerns seriously." Taking it seriously?
Yuck!
For $200, my voice cannot be bought. However for $2,000, my voice can be rented.
Oh mom, can I keep it?!