Woman Finds Tiny Mammal Vertebra In Peanut M&M
A woman in Atlanta bit into a blue peanut M&M and discovered a tiny, blackened bone, probably from a nut obsessed animal who crept into the M&M to eat the peanut, then died of remorse. A Mars rep told the customer it was probably just a peanut twig. Whatever; by our estimations, this animal is most likely smaller than a peanut M&M, but has a comically wide and very short neck. Hmm, maybe we should instead ask an expert to deduce where this bone came from, which is what the customer did.
The professor who helped her out proved why you never go to a professor if you want to be coddled:
"It's definitely bone, and it came from some type of mammal," Blumer told FOXNews.com. "This isn't [a] tail vertebra - it's something higher up, and the reason I'm certain for that is because it's hollow. The nerve cord would run through there."
Blumer could not identify exactly what type of animal the vertebra came from but said that, because of the smoothness of the material, it had likely been dead for some time.
"It doesn't look like there's even a remnant of flesh on this," Blumer said. "This has either been out in the environment for a while and it got into that container, or it went through some organism's digestive tract first. For example, you might find something like this in an owl pellet," Blumer said, referring to the indigestible material regurgitated by the animal.
Despite that initial no-big-deal response from a Mars rep, the company now says it's asked for the product to be returned so it can investigate further, and blah blah blah food safety is of the utmost importance to us you know the drill.
What's most frightening about this whole story, however, is the FDA's response: "The FDA takes every complaint it receives very seriously and looks into it." Oh no. They've gotten to you, too, FDA.
"Atlanta Woman Finds 'Mammal Bone' in Blue M&M" [FOXNews.com] (Thanks to Matt!)
(Photo: Blane Bachelor)
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Comments:
I'm starvin! We got any random animal vertebra back there, Earl?
Obviously hose M&M guys are real, and one of them fell into the sorter.
Whose looking out for the M&M guys?
We really need to have a discussion in this country about the safety of our food mascots. I mean, Kool-Aid guy is in some halfway house, hopped up on painkillers from all those wall crashes, Tucan Sam is dead of a meth overdose, and the Trix rabbit is now earning money the hard way, turning, well-- you know...
Cue Donald Sutherland pointing at the FDA and screaming.
M&Ms are supposed to be boneless?!
Boo fricking hoo. We have one of the safest food supplies in the world. We eat parts of rodents all the time as it is. Bugs too. This doesn't even deserve mention of a possible lawsuit. It wouldn't even put me off the candies. Life happens. It's like people that make a big deal when they find a hair in something. Yeah, it's not the nicest surprise to get, but it's not going to kill you.
I now declare peanuts the work of the devil! He is systematically trying to murder us all with them, repent legume eaters!
What's the problem? You're supposed to collect all the little bones and assemble them into a tiny dinosaur skeleton. Have you all been eating the bones?
A raid from the Keebler elves went terribly wrong. :(
RIP.
Like chuck0008's comment, I find I can't get all "Eww!" about this either.
But I'm curious about something and maybe one of the trivia experts out there can help out: which "M" stands for mammal? :-)
So the moral from the good prof is that flesh melts in the mouth, not in the hand?
@chuck0008: Don't we swallow something like a hundred spiders in our sleep over the course of our lifetime?
That's gross but it wouldn't make me stop eating M&Ms. I would just think it was a one-off.
Thank god. Now I have a reason to stop eating those. I was so addicted for awhile.
It's a funny (and gross) story, but I agree with chuck0008. This kind of thing happens and you can't make ANYTHING 100% safe, no matter how hard you try. Small animals and bugs are sneaky bastards, and besides, our bodies are pretty good about handling this sort of stuff.
I immediately thought "owl pellet," lol. That was my favorite dissection in school, but I'm not sure I want the new "owl pellet M&Ms." At least not unless they're clearly differentiated from the edible ones!
How many bags of M&Ms are sold every day?
Get over it.
we all know what would have been found in a green one don't we?
Anyway, this was probably some dead rodent whose bones were collected with the peanuts. probably even went through the entire process with the peanuts and was somewhat sterilized by being boiled or whatever.
not saying it couldn't have been laden with disease, but probably safe.
Peanut Corp. of America's Texas Plant?
Based on the picture, that's awfully big to slip into a peanut M&M
@theblackdog: I thought the same, though I've definitely experienced some peanut M&Ms that were crunchier than others. Still, that thing looks awfully big to be inside a peanut and candy coated shell, and not noticed easily.
@nakedscience: I had the initial "eww" feeling too, but one has to remember that this is just one out of (I'm guessing) billions of perfectly fine M&Ms consumed.
I thought Cracker Jacks were the candy with the surprise inside.
Ugh, guess what I just got back from the store with?
M&M's aren't much of a choking hazard, they are round and smooth, so even if you swallow one whole it will probably slide down (and up again) without much effort. Bones have sharp edges, and can get stuck.
We need a higher resolution picture.
@JGKojak: I had to read your comment twice to make sure it said what I thought it said. That means twice as much coffee snorted up my nose.
The Food Defect Action Levels
Levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods
that present no health hazards for humans
Great, now i want to go buy some from the vending machine.
I had rotisserie rat when I was traveling. Quite tasty, when they're milk fed, and plump.
(not kidding)
I know that everyone says "taking it seriously" but I'm not sure what other response people should give "Yeah, we don't care" or "lol, pretty funny"? If people said something else that response would eventually get the same treatment. Can't we just judge it by the actions, not the words?
Chuck0008: WORD! (system wouldn't let me directly reply).
Yes, we do have a food supply that is as "safe" as any other countries, but this in no way means that food products are sterile or completely devoid of "impurities". In fact, there are established tolerances/"safe" levels for such contaminants as insects/insect parts and animal parts for virtually ever category of processed food. The fact is, this stuff is totally harmless and DOES NOT necessarily mean that Mars is negligent (I'm surprised this does not happen more often, actually).
If you think this is gross, you should see the list of the tolerated "contaminants" in peanut butter; the protein content is definitely NOT exclusively from the peanuts!
Cripes, another Ompa Lompa bit the dust...
No harm, no foul. I take it she survived the "horrible" ordeal. I expect every ambulance chasing lawyer in the county to be calling her to start a massive lawsuit. Isn't that how this sort of thing goes?
Gopher Everett?
Can we get a lot number please????
I just purchased three large packages for kid's treats!
@Ghede: You're not talking about choking there, though, you're talking about swallowing. If an M'n'M goes into the windpipe, it's considerably more dangerous there than the smaller bone.
So M & M stands for Mice & Marsupials.
Ok maybe this is just me, but the bone is obviously way way bigger than an M&M. And we know from having visited food production facilities that made product isn't left around, its packaged immediately.
So we are left to wonder, is the factory floor at Mars so filthy that animals and their excrement aren't noticed, Nah thats highly unlikely.
SO does that mean that it made it in with the ingredients, nah thats unlikely, because they would have candy coated it. If it did, that pic is awfully clean. Are we saying that this woman and the professor meticulously cleaned off all of the evidence of Mars's malfeasance??
So how does something like that get into a package??
Something here does not add up. That Fox reported it only adds to my skepticism. On top of that, if it came from an owl it would have been coughed up with fur and other bits and most likely would have been broken.
I have no idea how that thing got into the bag, or if it ever was in the bag. But I'm getting awfully tired of Consumerists rumor mongering. If its found out to be fraud, are you going to post a We're Sorry Mars.
I'm a Forensic Anthropologist / Osteologist. If there is a different angle or better res photo I can check what animal it would be from.
I'm thinking squirrel actually based on size right now- but a clear picture of the arch and the foramen will tell more.
Well I officially do not want to eat another peanut M&M ever again.