- 6 weeks ago
Sometimes, what ends up in our food is more disgusting than we could imagine. From dead bats to glass shards and even rodents baked into bread, these food recalls push the boundaries of gross. Join us as we uncover shocking tales of contaminated foods, revealing the bizarre and unsettling reasons behind some of the biggest recalls in recent history. Beware before your next snack!
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00:00Inspection reports of the plant revealed mold, insects, and meat and fat residue in the walls, floors, and equipment.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at 10 historic examples of food being recalled for disgusting reasons.
00:13I was a fairly vocal advocate for criminally charging Stewart.
00:20Dead bat salad.
00:21Fresh Express is recalling salads after two people in Florida found a dead bat in theirs.
00:26And they say they ate some of the salad before finding the deteriorating animal.
00:30We all know we're supposed to eat our greens, but this is just ridiculous.
00:34In 2017, two shoppers in Florida sat down to enjoy a healthy bowl of Walmart's organic market-sized spring mix.
00:40But hidden among the radishito and arugula was a little extra protein.
00:45A bisected and decomposing Mexican free-tailed bat.
00:49You really have to hand it to the processing plant's quality control for missing a dead black bat
00:55napping in the bright green lettuce.
00:57Fresh Express swiftly recalled the salads due to extraneous animal matter.
01:03Which is probably the most polite way of saying there might be a dead animal in your salad.
01:07How are those maggots?
01:10Maggots, Michael.
01:12You're eating maggots, how do they taste?
01:14Let this be a lesson.
01:15Always, always check your pre-washed greens.
01:17And maybe wash them again, I don't know.
01:19The Taylor Farms lettuce catastrophe.
01:22Produce supplier is voluntarily recalling iceberg lettuce that sickened thousands of people across the country.
01:27Lettuce again.
01:28Who doesn't love a crisp crunch to their taco?
01:31Well, in 2026, that crunch came with a microscopic parasite.
01:35Mmm.
01:36Taylor Farms issued a massive recall when their produce, including the iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell,
01:40was linked to a massive outbreak of cyclospora.
01:43So this parasite spreads when human waste gets into the water used to irrigate crops, for example.
01:50And farm workers, whether they're in the U.S. or abroad,
01:53need proper restroom and sanitation facilities when on the job so that these contamination events don't occur.
01:59If you're unfamiliar with cyclospora, let's just say that it turns your digestive tract into a slip and slide.
02:04Over 10,000 people got an unwanted lesson firsthand.
02:08And just to sprinkle some extra spice on the misery, Taylor Farms had to issue another recall shortly after.
02:14This time involving jalapenos, for a potential salmonella in their taco dip.
02:18Nothing says fiesta, quite like spending three days barricaded inside your bathroom.
02:22I hope you're not using the toilet, it's broken.
02:27Huh?
02:28The toilet doesn't flush.
02:31No, I was just shaving!
02:33Trader Joe's glass chicken.
02:35Today's Money Watch, a recall involving a popular product that's sold at Trader Joe's.
02:39It might be in your freezer right now.
02:41It involves roughly three million pounds of the frozen, ready to eat chicken fried rice.
02:47Foodies are always coming up with funny names for meals.
02:49But when we say glass chicken, we mean like literally glass chicken, like there's glass in the chicken.
02:54In 2026, boxes of Trader Joe's chicken fried rice came with a rather sharp surprise.
02:59A massive recall of 3.4 million pounds of frozen product was initiated because consumers were finding literal shards of
03:06glass mixed into their frozen entrees.
03:08Trader Joe's shoppers, check your freezer.
03:11Nearly 3.4 million pounds of frozen chicken fried rice being recalled after customers reported finding glass inside.
03:19The USDA later expanded the recall to approximately 40 million pounds of frozen products across multiple brands,
03:26including veggie fried rice, Japanese-style fried rice, and chicken shumai.
03:30We appreciate a crunchy texture in our fried rice just as much as the next person,
03:34but chewing on broken glass and getting emergency oral surgery might be one step too far.
03:39Luckily, no one was hurt.
03:40I want you to start chewing the glass.
03:43What?
03:45I want you to start eating that glass.
03:49Go on.
03:50Tyson Dinosaur Fun Nuggets.
03:52I can't believe you hit me.
03:53I'm sorry.
03:54This is throbbing.
03:55Eat dino bites.
03:56Ah, the dinosaur chicken nugget, a nostalgic pillar of childhood cuisine.
04:01Tyson Foods has a bit of a history with weird objects ending up in their chicken,
04:04having previously recalled nuggets for containing plastic and rubber.
04:07But in 2023, they upped the ante, recalling 30,000 pounds of their iconic Fun Nuggets.
04:13Listen up closely here.
04:14An important recall to tell you about Tyson Foods is recalling about 30,000 pounds of chicken nuggets.
04:22The Fun came to a screeching halt when a consumer reported minor oral injuries
04:26after biting into small pieces of metal hidden deep inside the breaded poultry.
04:31Tyson never explained how metal ended up in their nuggets,
04:33as companies are rarely required to share internal forensic plant reports,
04:37but that's not really the point.
04:39The point is, there were pieces of frickin' metal in the chicken.
04:43Hello!
04:44We have a use-by date of next September.
04:46There has been one report of a minor mouth injury linked to the product.
04:51Le mole de cedre.
04:52It's sourdough starter.
04:55Amazing.
04:56I thought that you might like to make something.
04:58Oh, great.
04:58We know what you're thinking.
05:00Forget all this.
05:01We'll just make our own food from now on.
05:03Baking your own sourdough from scratch is hot right now,
05:05and it's supposed to be the ultimate way to control what goes into your body.
05:09Well, the universe had other plans for Quebec Bakers in May 2024.
05:13Two major Canadian flour brands had to issue a huge recall of their products,
05:17as it was found that literal flakes of paint had been embedded in the flour.
05:21Again, nobody really explained how this happened,
05:23but it was enough to clear out bakery shelves across the province.
05:26If you wanted your baguettes to have a colorful, crunchy, and mildly toxic exterior,
05:31this was definitely your moment.
05:32Oh.
05:33Oh.
05:34Okay.
05:35Old bread.
05:38McCain Foods hash browns.
05:39And take a look at this.
05:40Some hash browns are being recalled for a very unusual reason.
05:44They may be containing chunks of golf balls.
05:47This has to be one of the more baffling examples of food contamination.
05:51In April 2017, McCain Foods issued a recall for bags of their frozen Southern-style hash browns.
05:57The culprit, according to the FDA, was extraneous golf ball materials.
06:02Yes, golf ball.
06:03We don't think the word extraneous is necessary here.
06:06No injuries have been reported yet,
06:07and there's still no word on how the potatoes and the golf balls got mixed up, Todd.
06:13I don't even know about the story.
06:14Golf balls and your hash browns, you may not want to have that for breakfast,
06:17but today, a great day to go out there and golf, right?
06:19Golf balls were harvested out in the potato fields,
06:22thrown into the hopper, chopped up, and frozen right alongside the spuds.
06:26Experts note this usually happens when potato fields are located near golf courses,
06:30driving ranges, or rural areas where people casually hit balls into the field.
06:33The FDA warned that the pieces posed a significant choking hazard,
06:37but luckily, no one was hurt, and all the affected bags were successfully recalled.
06:42The ball you found, sir?
06:44Yes, Lesinger 7.
06:47Let's have a little fun with Mr. Goldfinger.
06:48The Boar's Head House of Horrors.
06:50We're all still in shock for all of the things, you know,
06:54that he's seen and been through in his life to come to that.
06:58Deli sandwiches are a lunchtime staple.
07:01But in 2024, Boar's Head Liverwurst turned a simple meal into a lethal game of Russian roulette.
07:07A deadly listeria outbreak traced back to their Virginia plant tragically killed 10 and hospitalized dozens more.
07:13The CDC now saying at least 59 people in 19 states have been sickened by the bacteria.
07:19But what makes this story a national phenomenon was this surreal USDA inspection report of the Boar's Head factory.
07:25Inspectors walked into a house of horrors, documenting black mold, dead insects, rancid smells, and actual pools of blood on
07:33the factory floor.
07:34The company recalled over 7 million pounds of meat and permanently discontinued their liverwurst product.
07:40For our consumer news this Wednesday, and you won't be able to buy Boar's Head Liverwurst apparently ever again, according
07:46to the company.
07:47Jack in the Box Monster Burgers.
07:49Health officials say people infected with the E. coli bacteria may be unknowingly infecting others.
07:55More than 150 people have become ill after eating tainted hamburger meat at Jack in the Box restaurants in Idaho
08:00and Washington State.
08:01Introduced in 1992, the demand for Jack in the Box's Monster Burgers overwhelmed the cooks and rushed the restaurant's food
08:08safety protocols.
08:08Corporate executives also consciously ignored new Washington state laws of requiring patties to be cooked at 155 degrees Fahrenheit.
08:16Adhering instead to the more lenient federal standard of 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
08:20The health department says all the news about Jack in the Box has caused us to lose sight of how
08:25easy the disease is transmitted from person to person.
08:28This combination led to dangerously undercooked beef patties and a massive E. coli outbreak that killed four and sickened over
08:35700.
08:36This wasn't just a gross mishap.
08:38It was a nationwide tragedy that fundamentally changed how America handles food safety.
08:43It permanently vaulted E. coli into the public consciousness, triggered a massive recall of ground beef patties,
08:48and forced the federal government to raise mandatory cooking temperatures to 155 degrees Fahrenheit.
08:53We immediately decided to increase the cooking time of our hamburgers.
08:58In addition, we took the extraordinary step at that point and replaced all the hamburger patties in every restaurant in
09:06Washington and Idaho.
09:08Pasko Shikisima Sliced Bread
09:09Oh Blanche, you know we got rats in the cellar?
09:14Sliced bread is famously the greatest thing ever invented, duh.
09:18Unless you happen to be buying it in Japan in May of 2024.
09:21The Pasko Shikisima Corporation had to yank 104,000 packages of bread from grocery store shelves after a truly horrifying
09:29discovery was made.
09:30Two unfortunate customers opened their morning loaf only to find the remains of a black rat baked directly into the
09:37dough.
09:38Even worse, the rat had been neatly sliced through along with the rest of the bread, the result of a
09:43nasty accident on the processing line.
09:46It's hard to imagine a worse start to your morning than making a peanut butter and rodent sandwich.
09:51The bakery apologized profusely and recalled the bread, but we suspect those customers might stick to oatmeal from now on.
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10:32The Peanut Corporation of America
10:34I wanted to see justice for my mom and the others, I wanted to see food safety laws change, and
10:41also dealing with the realization that, you know, my mom is gone.
10:45The 2009 Peanut Corporation of America recall was less a public health hazard and more of a straight up crime.
10:52Their tainted peanut butter paste sparked one of the largest food recalls in American history, sickening over 700 people with
10:58salmonella and killing nine.
11:00The factory inspection revealed conditions that would make even the most hardened food inspector gag.
11:05Within weeks of taking the job, Kendrick is appalled by what he finds.
11:10We're talking black mold, massive gaps in the factory roof letting in bird waste, and a ventilation system taking air
11:16from a crawl space packed with dead rodents and rat feces.
11:20The negligence was so cartoonishly evil that the CEO, Stuart Parnell, was actually sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.
11:28The real gist of the PCA case is not finding salmonella.
11:31It's not demonizing a company for finding something bad, a pathogen.
11:37It's that step further of knowing it's bad and then releasing it.
11:42That's the issue.
11:43Did you happen to get caught up in these recalls or did you escape unharmed?
11:46Let us know in the comments below.