It is a symptom of our curious existence that while processed vegetables and fruits give us the constant convenience of food that has been cleaned and prepared, the truth remains that mechanization and automation of the processing is imperfect, and the price we pay for never having to pull a bean from a garden is that, occasionally, there will be a decapitated snakehead on our dinnerplate.

Earl Hartman from South Philadelphia will testify to this, if you ask him. He found a snakehead between his chicken and buttered noodles. From NBC 10:

“When I sat down, I noticed something didn’t look right. It didn’t loot like a green bean,” he said. Hartman said he called the Pathmark where he bought the beans and Thursday received a call from Seneca Foods in upstate New York, where the vegetables were canned.

“The company said that they have an automated sorting and sometimes things like this happen. I asked about the rest of the body and he told me that it was probably kicked out by the sorter, but they’re not sure,” he said.

Of course there are places in the world where they might not have thrown out the green beans and considered the snake a delicacy, but South Philadelphia doesn’t happen to be one of them.

“I want people to know and to be aware what may be in your food before you eat it. Just check it out,” he said.

Hartman said Seneca Foods is sending him some sort of container so he can ship the snakehead back to them. Yum. —MEGHANN MARCO

Snakehead Found In Green Beans Can [NBC10] (Thanks, Nicole!)

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