Back in 2007, a man in Northern Ireland opened up a loaf of bread and found a whole, mercifully dead, rat. (The BBC is reporting that it’s a mouse, but it’s either a giant mutant mouse or a rat.) A judge heard the case this week, and fined the bakery ÔøΩ1,000 ($1,653) “plus costs.”
A defence lawyer told the court that the presence of the mouse was a shock to the company. He suggested it might have been put in the tin to “sabotage” the baker who has been in business for 60 years and has never had any complaints.
Neither the man who bought the bread nor the rat’s family received settlements for their pain and suffering.
RELATED: Man Finds Mouse Baked Into His Hot Dog Buns
Man found dead mouse in malt loaf [BBC] (Thanks, Kristin!)
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But is the bakery “taking it seriously”?
@Donathius:
Can we institute a moratorium on “taking it seriously” comments?
@Murph1908: seconded
@edwardso: seriously.
@dorianh49: Ok, ok, I’ll stop. I just had to get something in there since I’ve never been the first commenter on a Consumerist story before…and in my defense I’ve never posted a “taking it seriously” comment before.
@Donathius:
I mean really, what do you want companies to say?
@tellervision:
Anything other than the phrase “take[ing] this [matter] (very) seriously”.
@Donathius:
I was “taking it seriously”
Rats have scaly tails. As does this thing. Thus – RAT
@MustyBuckets: Oh, yeah–and the long, blocky muzzle. Perhaps the BBC thinks rats are just mice with Oxbridge educations?
@floraposte:
Oooh… someone went to Yale…
@MustyBuckets: Mice also have scaly tails. It’s just a matter of size.
You’re right that this is a rat, though. She has big feet and a rounder, larger head in proportion to her body than a mouse would have.
Poor critter.
@MustyBuckets: NSFW language:
Also, does it float in water?
@SupremeCourtNominee_GitEmSteveDave: your all wrong its clearly a mouse rats tend to have slightly longer torsos.
@smileboot: Does it really matter whether it was a mouse or a rat? Either way, it doesn’t look good on a bun.
What I’d like to know is how the thing died – thirst, suffocation, or baking? Also, how much essence of rodent got into all of the other baked goods prepared in that batch? People who bought (and ate) the adjacent buns should have been suing too!
@Shoelace: Judging by the shape, it was in the “pan/mold” when the dough was added on top of it. So probably suffocation. As for the “essence”, if it had just died, there was no decomp, and it was then baked in a HOT oven in direct contact w/the cooking vessel, so it was as “dangerous” as a piece of cooked steak placed on the bread.
@MakinSense…ForOnce_GitEmSteveDave: I disagree somewhat. Bread doesn’t get all that hot when baked.
Hot enough to sterilize the rat… probably, but just barely.
@MakinSense…ForOnce_GitEmSteveDave: Well, as dangerous as a piece of cooked steak with a full colon, anyway.
@MustyBuckets: It would have to be either a full grown mouse or a baby/young rat.
Having owned rats, it honestly looks like a mouse to me.
WHY.
Also I used to have two rats as pets, this makes me sad
@nakedscience: I currently have four pet rats. Best pets I ever had.
@Danica Grannon:
I used to have four pet rats, looong ago. Still miss my ratty little girls!
Ok, I actually agree with this. Assuming “plus costs” covered the guys legal fees and such then he doesn’t “need” settlements for pain and suffering.
Typically in civil court cases like these, two fines are administered, compensatory and punitive damages. Compensatory covers the monetary loss and punitive serves as a punishment, so as not to let it happen again. This was clearly a mistake and not done intentionally. According to the article the company keeps clean standards and regular pest inspections. So a fluke accident shouldn’t hold them accountable for some guys trauma of being offset $2 for a loaf of bread that he couldn’t eat. Yeah I wouldn’t like seeing a dead rat in my bread bag either but it’s not considered a traumatic experience, especially considering he’s likely seen more animal carnage on the side of the road.
my two cents
@pb5000: What do you mean, not done intentionally? The rat wasn’t “in” the dough. It was in the tin. Unless this was a large chain bakery and automated, I just don’t see how the “handler” could not notice that there was a rat in the tin, before tossing in the dough.
I remember stories from my friends who worked at McDonalds of how some guys would kill a roach, throw it on the grill, throw a burger on top of it and serve it. Just my opinion, but it sounds similar.
I might have found the McDonalds incident unlikely until I worked there and saw someone drop frozen burgers on the greasy, dirty ass floor. It roll like a wheel for a foot and then gets picked up and placed on the grill.
@eb0nyknight: I find it somewhat difficult to imagine that someone intentionally put the rat in there. There really is no benefit a small bakery gets from doing that.
It is also difficult to see how the guy would have put the loaf in, noticed the rat, and be like “oh crap! well fuck it, i dont give a rats ass”, and proceeded with the packing. I mean, as a customer, a rat is fairly hard to miss if you are taking the bread out of the tin. Surely the baker would have known that much.
@MostlyHarmless: I’m not saying that someone put the rat in the tin (by tin, I mean the baking pan at the bakery). I am saying that some schmuck (as in the McDonalds example) must of noticed it in there and just didn’t care. The rat wasn’t in the dough. The rat was thoroughly burnt and thus must have been in the bottom of the baking pan.
With it not being an automated factory (assumption), someone HAD to have put the dough in the pan, and I find it almost impossible to believe, not see the live or dead rat.
Just because the bakery gets no benefit doesn’t mean they can’t hire some lazy ass that doesn’t comprehend the repercussions of a dumb act. (See the domino’s sandwich adulteration video on youtube)
After the baking, I can easily see no one noticing the rat stuck to the bottom, since I don’t believe that baked bread is inspected thoroughly and then packaging it.
@eb0nyknight:
I don’t know how this bread was packaged. But isn’t it possible that the rodent got into the bag containing the bread (it’s clearly crushed at the end of the loaf, not INSIDE it), and then when the loaves of bread were packaged, the rodent got squashed?
I would think that if the rodent had gone through the oven there wouldn’t be so much hair on it.
@ekthesy: Look at the rat around both legs, the arm and the nose. You can see that the rat was cooked with the bread. If the bread was baked and then the rat got in the bag, why is there a fairly clear baked outline of the rat on the bottom of the loaf?
The extremities would have lost moisture and contracted during the baking, thus leaving the “burnt outline” around the extremities. You can clearly see the gap between the outline and the limbs.
As for the hair, if the bread was on top of him (as I contend) as it baked, where could the hair go? Are you saying that hair melts when baked or something?
@eb0nyknight:
At a high enough temperature (and I bet commercial bread is baked at at least 400 degrees) hair doesn’t melt but it burns away.
If I had to put money down on it, though, I’d go with your explanation.
@ekthesy: Personally, I’d figure they’d bake the bread at the same temperature people at home do – remember, baking at higher temperatures won’t result in faster baking, but with a burnt outside and raw interior.
Instead you make the oven bigger and bake a lot of loaves at once.
@ekthesy: The thing is…even if bread is baked at 400 degrees, that doesn’t mean the bread itself is 400 degrees. For example, if you put a pot of water in a 1,000 degree oven, the water will never, EVER go above 212 degrees… the only thing a higher temp will do is speed evaporation. If the bread got as hot as the oven, the same protein destruction that’s making the hairs evaporate would probably screw with the grain in some form.
@eb0nyknight: oh yeah, i saw the frozen patties off the floor onto the chargrilling machine at burger king daily at least
@pb5000: Actually, this doesn’t seem to have been a civil case–it was a charge of “placing unsafe food on the market.” There is apparently a separate civil case in the works. From here: [www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
So the reason nobody was awarded damages was because this wasn’t the venue to do so.
@floraposte: Yup a much better article. This fine is just the statutory fine for the offence not any sort of damages paid to the customer. As far as I am aware English law doesn’t really go for much in the way of punitive damages for pain and suffering. More than likely you just get the cost of the item refunded and a pat on the back.
@pb5000: As so many other posters on here have said and I have to agree, this was too large to miss, someone had to see it putting it in the package, therefore guilty, therefore an accomplice, and therefore they should be punished criminally, civilly and otherwise.
I don’t know how you arrive at the FALSE and preposterous conclusion this was “clearly a mistake and not done intentionally” and a “fluke accident”. The packager, even if they weren’t the source of the rat, passed it right along merrily, didn’t they?
Some people like you are so sick and denial-based in your worship of the average mega-corporation and their God-Like brand images hypnotizing you that everything they do is goodness and light and any consumer complaining must be a criminal.
Finally, roadkill on the highway hardly justifies or legitimizes it in the bakery, sir.
Glove off the hand and slapped in your face. Forthwith.
Regardless, this is hardly the blogspace for you.
That is one of the nastiest things I’ve ever seen.
@lasbrisas: I was just about to post the exact same thing. I think this would be pretty horrifying to open up and see.
@lasbrisas: I’m pretty sure I have been emotionally damaged and scarred. I’ll see you in court Consumerist!
Well here is an article I wish I hadn’t seen 7 minutes before my lunch break… ugh.
@Radi0logy: Agreed, can we get some Kitty “Gross Picture Inside” coverup or something? It’s bad enough that it’s currently in the header, or that sometimes comments take a while to load and you can’t scroll away.
@Wombatish: Yeah, I expressed some dismay over the photo of a rotten snake head on a post about a month ago and was met with a chorus of, “If you can’t stand a rotten snake head then you’re too weak for the internet.” I’m still trying to figure out how to read Consumerist through Google Reader with the photos turned off…
Why Consumerist? Why just before I was about to make lunch?! *hurl*
@Dave: Just think of it as ….think of it as one of those stone carvings that are in ancient temples and ruins. That’s it, do that. It’s what I’m trying to convince myself that is.
@pecan 3.14159265: LOL i thought that exact thing when i saw it.
@pecan 3.14159265: I dunno, it’s pretty detailed for a stone carving…
Try thinking in words, not pictures. That helps, sometimes.
@pecan 3.14159265: Heh. Or if you found this in Pompeii, you’d think it was really cool.
@Dave: It’s the Consumerist Diet Plan!
This makes me think of the old Monty Python sketch with the candy…Crunchy Frog and Ram’s Bladder. Guess you can add Rat Bread to the lineup.
@Starfury: I prefer spring surprise!
@dorianh49: or a strawberry tart without so much rat in it.
@Starfury: You forgot about the Spring Surprise…
“What’s that then?”
“Oh, that’s our specialty. When you put it into your mouth, steel bolts spring out and pierce both cheeks!”
And who could forget Anthrax Ripple and Cockroach Clusters?
Bread with free meat baked in!! Who wouldn’t want it! Where can I get in on this deal? I’m starved!
Am I the only person getting a Han Solo frozen in carbonite vibe here?
@CthulhuRlyeh: Haha, nope I was gonna make the same comment if nobody beat me to it. You sir have beat me to it.
Sad for the rat’s family though. They, at least, deserved a little something.
But seriously, isn’t that already an english dish? Pope in a blanket or something?
@jkinatl2: Rat loaf?
@Laura Northrup: Rat Surprise?
But the real question; how does the bread taste?
Uf-fa. I’ll have a slice WITHOUT so much rat in it.
@ekthesy: appalling
Who can I donate money to to get Consumerist to stop displaying dead animal pics on the main page rather than burying these disturbing images under a cut?
@rdm: Um well, you see, that’s rather the point, you dolt. We see it, we get offended, we get enlightened and we rally around the consumer and attack / criticize, lose money and business for the company. That’s rather how this website works. Quite simple to avoid really. Get any RSS reader, Google Reader will do nicely, and just don’t open up titles you think might be gross. Better yet, just don’t read the blog.
@Con Sumer Zealot: I don’t need to see a dead animal to be offended at something that is horrifying. I don’t know if you’re aware of this but it is possible to realize that something is *really bad* without having to see a gratuitous image showing it. Maybe words on a page without a picture are a challenge for you to grasp, though.
1000 pounds seems excessive for an honest mistake. It sounded like they did their due diligence with keeping up with inspections, etc. It is just an impossibility to keep all pests out of food service areas. And at least it was whole. If it were a twinkie factory, there could be rat guts in the creamy filling you wouldn’t know about until you crunched into it.
Either way, nothing is grosser than that snake head post that made me projectile vomit across my office. I’d sort of appreciate it if Consumerist could leave these sort of photos for after the jump so you can choose to see them or not. Cause that’s nasty.
@mrgenius: I second your motion about keeping pics of dead animals as a link. Personally, I have an irrational fear of snakes so for me I’d prefer to have no snake pictures whatsoever.
@mrgenius: That Twinkie comment made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. I don’t eat Twinkies but…. sick.
@mrgenius: Oh liar, you didn’t either vomit at the office, just being gross to make a meritless point.
Don’t like the blog, don’t read it.
HELLO – Dramatic pictures get results, better yet it was a legitimate accurate picture.
Don’t hate blogs and consumers just because they’re effective and you aren’t.
Poor rat’s family deserves to be compensated
generally I just let my rats hgave at the bread after baking, not during. Must be so hard to keep the concepts straight.
Though I would like to take photos of a rat sandwich if they’d cooperate.
This is literally one of my worst fears. I can’t eat big chunks of anything for fear that there might be something inside.
the idea of whole dead animals in their food has been around for quite some time….
@fuzzymuffins: Wow, I haven’t seen this sketch in ages!
Mmmm..crunchy frog!
Maybe the bread was made for cats.
@zibby: or by cats.
GROSS!!
Poor little ratty…
“*squeak squeak sniff sniff* I think I’ll hide out in this nice tin…ooh, a crumb…wha- what’s that big white thing? Don’t drop that on me! AAAAAAHHH!!!!!”
They should have sold the bread as protein-enriched.
good thing it wasn’t sliced bread
Just peel the rat off and eat your bread!
Now that’s bread with fiber!
This bread is fortified!
Yuck!!!!
Although things do get into food, so I’m not sure there’s any way this could have been avoided. It doesn’t sound like negligence.
This is the best thing since sliced rat-free white bread.
this is actually a Malt Loaf… it’s about 5 inches long, so it really is a mouse. a very dead mouse.
Goddamn I bet that smelled like shit when it was being baked. I wonder how they didn’t notice the smoke/smell billowing from that particular tin. It’s not like rats smell great when they’re alive, but when they die, especially via burning, it smells god awful.