(ABC 7)
Candy surprises are only good when they involve candy showing up when you least expect it, not when your bag of sweets surprises you with say, an old, rusty razor blade that could cut you while you’re reaching for a treat. A California woman claims she found a grody old razor blade hanging out in her bag of Jolly Ranchers “Crunch ‘N Chew,” mixed right in with the candy.
ABC 7 says she claims to have picked up the offending bag from a Safeway, and that it was completely sealed when she opened it at home.
“I was all excited to try them out. Opened it up, ate two pieces first, went back in for my third piece and pulled this right out of the bag and was just in disbelief,” she told the station about finding the dull, rusty blade which had some white tape wrapped around it and hardened granules of old candy clinging to the metal. Simply delectable.
As one would do when unexpectedly happening upon a razor blade in a bag of food sold for consumption, the woman says she called the cops as well as the candy’s maker, the Hershey Company. The consolation they offered her was the exact wrong thing.
“They offered me three bags of candy replacement and I was like, ‘I don’t want anything. I just want to know this isn’t going to happen again. I just want to know that kids are going to be safe,’” she said.
Giving someone bags of candy identical to the one where you found a razor blade would be like if Six Flags had offered unlimited roller coaster rides to people who had just been stuck on a roller coaster for two hours. Which it, at least, did not.
Hershey’s statement on the incident reads:
“Food safety and the well-being of our customers is a top priority for The Hershey Company. We were contacted by the customer yesterday regarding this incident and immediately began reviewing our processes related to our JOLLY RANCHER CRUNCH ‘N CHEW Candy. We have apologized to the customer and, while there was no injury, we take this situation seriously. We believe this is an isolated case and accidental in nature. We will be taking the needed actions to prevent this happening in the future.”
The woman says she just hopes Hershey changes something because probably no one ever wants a razor blade in a bag of candy.
“I just want to make sure they’re taking it seriously so children don’t grab this and find a shank knife inside of it,” she said.
*Thanks for the tip, David!
Santa Clara woman finds shank in bag of candy [ABC 7 News]
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Maybe the shank belonged to the dead mouse that was at the bottom of the bag, right next to the severed finger and the used band aide.
How hard would it be to have a metal detector or even just a powerful magnet at the end of the line checking for something like this?
Every automated food production line I’ve ever seen has a metal detector at the end. It’s more to find metal shavings or broken bits of machinery, but would probably find a blade too.
Coming soon: flesh-eating bacteria in every bag!
Big deal; at least it wasn’t a used enema.
I have two thoughts.
First, it is impossible to know whether this is a hoax. Often before, cases like this have been hoaxes. On the other hand, each is plausible.
Second, I find it heartening that stories of adulterated foodstuffs which cause no harm are extraordinary enough to warrant news coverage. That means we have an incredibly safe food supply, even if the rare exceptional circumstance is gross and disconcerting.
There are a couple things that grabbed me on this one.
First, she doesn’t seem to want anything.
Second, the blade is coated in the candy itself. That’s a new one. It gives the impression that it really was dropped during production and the candy hardened on the blade.
But yeah, lots of have been hoaxes. And sometimes for nothing less than attention. It’s just, for some reason I believe this one.
Also, agreed. Our food system is very good. This only goes to show that we are mortal and make mistakes, no matter how good the system.
But as others have said, where is that metal detector? That should have found this immediately.
The other thing.. If they do have a metal detector or giant magnet, shouldn’t they… say that. I mean, loudly. An AH HAH! Gotcha! Myth BUSTED moment? Their response was pretty vague.
There is like one thing I remember from business school and that’s to nip these things in the bud. Not just say, the old standby copy pasted lines on safety and health. To actually SHOW that it’s impossible to highly unlikely. Their response actually rings a little, “Yeah, so what?”. And that’s worrying.
If this isn’t faked, I would imagine someone laid a makeshift tool down near the packaging line and it got bumped and fell in. I can see that happening.
Why would you make a “makeshift tool” when box cutters of all varieties are available that enable you to change the blade when it dulls instead of taking the time to wrap a new blade with tape.
if you need a blade but it won’t fit with a full handle. that comes to mind right off. I’ve used just the blade before now in really tight spaces…
They make box cutters that are about as big as a razor blade. Look at the Alka Seltzer one here: http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u45/gitemstevedave/flea%20market%20finds/4_17_2010Finds.png
That tiny box cutter is pretty cool, but I’d never heard of it. I don’t think it’s a stretch to think someone on the Jolly Rancher assembly line hadn’t heard of it either – or had access to blades and tape from a company store-room but not clearance – to purchase a new box cutter with company funds, or decided he needed that tool in a pinch and couldn’t leave the factory that day.
Then again, it could be a scam. Oblect-in-food seems to have a high scam-to-real-crisis ratio than most news stories.
Where’d you find that dirty carpet?
In my living room. Here’s a hint, when they tell you to wait before you vaccum something you just cleaned, listen.
I don’t know; maybe they broke the handle or something. I wasn’t there. But it looks like something someone jury-rigged.
Box cutters cost money.
I’d love to find a shark knife in my bag of candy. Hell, I might even pay extra!
Someone mixed their new test “Sawfish” candies in with these!
The FDA should fine them for not declaring the entirety of their iron content.
Wouldn’t it be steel?
Steel is an Iron alloy.
I know of a company where something like this happened, the metal knife was never found, the company thought it was saving money by making employees pay for the tools to do their jobs.
Scam
I’m leaning that direction as well, for two reasons. Firstly every plant I’ve been in that made food items like that have metal detectors on the lines through which the sealed packages go through, also most weigh the little bags like then and reject anything under or over a certain limit, which tends to be very tight.
She called the POLICE? Wha?
I totally understand contacting the product’s manufacturer, but the POLICE? What did she think they were going to do about it?
It’s clearly a production line error, unless it is a scam.
Quote from another article:
“”That’s the most alarming thing of all, I have a one and a half month old baby and I’m breast-feeding and so I don’t know what I just put in my system, if it could have Hepatitis, germs, bacteria which I can give to my child,” Hu says.”
Oh for god’s sake. Heaven forbid something REALLY bad happens to this dipshit alarmist.