Friday, March 13, 2009

My, That's Interesting!

I go to the grocery store at least once a week. I try to limit it to one big shopping trip, so I make my list, gather coupons, etc.

There are some items I need every week. They're so commonplace, I almost don't need them on the list, but I put them there anyway.

Among the top spots: Milk (usually 2 or 3 gallons), bread, yogurt, cheese, eggs, etc. All the perishable things we run through quickly.

So, on Monday, I picked up a loaf of bread. I'm not going to say which brand because I have bought this brand before with no problems.

I make the Evil Twin's lunch 4 times a week - each lunch consists of 2 sandwiches, which means 4 slices of bread. Tuesday morning, I take the first four slices behind the "heel" and put them on a piece of paper towel to construct the sandwiches.

Only, there is something amiss about three of the slices, so I start to investigate (keep in mind, it's the crack of dawn - for me - and I'm barely awake).

Slice one, I find this:



And the other side of it:



Slice #2:



It was just a bit longer piece, but same on both sides. Brown on one side, white on the other.

Slice #3:



This is obviously a smaller bit and one I didn't try to pick out.

It was my best guess that this matter was a bandage of some sort (GROSS!) But, it might also be some sort of cardboard. I'm just not sure.

I just put all the slices in a resealable baggie and then, called the 800 number on the package.

The customer service person I spoke with was wonderful. She was very apologetic and took down all my information.

I know stuff like this is an anomaly and doesn't happen every day. She thanked me for drawing it to their attention. Then, she asked me to put the baggie of everything (the evidence) into the freezer and said she'd be mailing a postage paid mailer for me to send it all in for Quality Assurance investigation and also said there would be coupons for free bread included.

I've been buying this brand of their 100% Whole Wheat Bread for YEARS and I don't intend on stopping now.

I was just a little skeeved I might have a band-aid stuck in my bread!

54 comments:

  1. EEEUWW!!!!

    Has happened to me too ~ let us NOT go there.xx

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  2. A Band-aid????? a freaking band-aid?? I'd never be able to eat that bread again I don't think. I would always wonder if the bandage belonged to someone whose ginger had been amputated and what if it had gangrene. I wonder if there was a "lil bit" of body prt in the loaf or in the batch??
    Hey Hausfrau, how's the towel dilemna going? I have a little black cabinet like the one you showed and now everytime I look at it I think of "the towels"......thanks, lol :)

    Steady On
    Reggie Girl

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  3. I'm totally with Reggie Girl! I don't care how many loaves of wonderful I'd purchased in the past, I don't think I could trust that there wasn't some problem that wasn't so large that it jumped out at me like that.

    Doesn't TET get completely skeezed by finding things in food that shouldn't be there? Well, when I think about it, who doesn't?

    Hope the rest of the day goes better!

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  4. Someone (don't remember who) once told me a story about biting into a big 'ol sausage biscuit from a well known, local biscuit place and crunching down on a roach which had been fried right into the sausage patty.

    That was my top nasty food story, until today.

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  5. And what's worse is that I recognize exactly what brand of bread that is, because I buy it all the time for myself (or bought, maybe).

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  6. At leastit wasn't a rodent!!! Still gross - they better send LOTS of coupons for bread, to make up for this.

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  7. O.M.G!!!

    Hey at least it wasn't a finger...although maybe that's why they needed a bandaid in the first place...OMG gross!

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  8. OH, gross. That is beyond nasty.

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  9. That is pretty disgusting. At least the company was receptive to your call and wanting the evidence for quality assurance. Although, they are probably hoping you don't sue them for mental damages! Evil Twin might never get his sandwiches made again because of this incident. Think of the cash you could get out of this. *wink*

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  10. Yuck! You've got me curious now about what brand of bread you buy! ;) Thank GOD it wasn't a rodent!!!! Remember the fried chicken head a McDonalds customer got in her nuggets? YUCK-O!!

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  11. Hmmm...adding more fiber maybe?

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  12. Natalie - gross things happen.

    Reggie - I'm not sure it was a band-aid, it just kind of looks like one.

    Jen - I know!

    BB - The rest of the loaf was fine! LOL. Yes, he does get skeeved (as do we all), but I'm just not sure WHAT it is, so....

    Nick - That would put me off biscuits from there forever.

    themom - she said they'd send couponS, so I hope it's a bunch too!

    Chandra - LOL, but I'm still not sure what it is.

    Robyn - I know! LOL.

    Suzy - we're hoping for lots of coupons....

    Jen - I would be more grossed out by a bug or a chicken head. LOL.

    Warren - perhaps that is what they were after. :-)

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  13. That is something NASTY, but I do have to agree..it doesn't happen everyday and if its one of your favorites...keep buying it, especially if they were so kind and apologetic. Lately dealing with Customer service is not a pleasant experience. Just watch out!! lol..its a good thing you didn't bite down on it EWWWWWWWW

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  14. My friends growing up once found a toe nail in their rice a roni box. Sanfransisco Treat, my ass!

    The funniest part of this whole post to me was that you called the 800 number. I didn't even know bread had 800 numbers. I would never in a million years think to do that. I would have just thrown the whole loaf away.

    Now, thanks to your enlightening me, if I find strange things in my bread I will know that there are bread coupons coming my way!

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  15. My dad found what looked to be a wire twist tie in a Vienna sausage once. We got coupons too. It could've been worse. At least it was something visible and not E Coli or Salmonella.

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  16. Blech! I'm looking at my little powdered donuts and wondering what I'm shoving into my mouth without looking. Maybe I should break them all apart...

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  17. That's it. I'm back to making my own bread.

    Gag.

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  18. Close to 30 yrs ago I was eating a a handfull of raisins from a box of a well known brand of raisins. I reached in the box for another handfull and pulled out what appeared to be a hairball-if you have a cat you know what I mean. Maybe the plant employed cats, or as Better Half suggested it was what was left of a rodent. As I was pregnant at the time, it certainly killed my appetite for the raisins. I'm still not overly fond of them. :(
    Good for you for calling customer service, I wish that I had thought to do that.

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  19. Aack!

    Ok, I couldn't even finish reading through the comments. I'm starting my air diet today.

    Bleck!

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  20. Um...Ewwww. I worked in a major label bread bakery (rhymes with dunbream) when I was a youngster, and there's not much touching of the bread (at least there didn't used to be). Probably paper from the flour bags.

    My sister and I have had two lovely (read: nasty) food experiences. Once we were eating pickles and thought they tasted funny. Dug through the jar and found a big rubber stopper that had fallen off of the equipment. Tasty!

    By far the worst was once we were making tuna fish sandwiches, and you know how it has those black flecks in it sometimes? We were picking out the black flecks and found a WHOLE fly. And it was obviously not a fly from our neck of the woods. Barf!

    Thanks for the morning nauseo-rama ETW!

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  21. I think it's someone's fingertip. Mmm, protein.

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  22. It was probably a tampon wrapper. Someone was pissed off at the factory.
    You're more level headed than I am because I could never eat it again!!

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  23. Oh, yuck. When you made the bandaid comment on my tweet I thought it was just random.

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  24. Oh ick. I think that would make it easy for me to cut out bread for a while. I still might do it.

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  25. ...that is not OK...I'd get an attorney.....you could retire now...both of you....hell all 4 of you.

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  26. Wow.... That is so disgusting! I am not sure I could bring myself to buy it again, even if I hadn't had a problem previously.

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  27. The atty comment - You're not going to retire from finding a bandaid in your bread. The fact that we are so lawsuit-happy is what drives our insurance rates so high. It sounds like you're happy with free bread, since you didn't even mention the company name, and I think that's the right way to be. Yes, it's gross. Lawsuit worthy? I don't think so.

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  28. Well, that should help with the your "no baked goods" resolution in a fairly substantial way. Gross !

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  29. Oh erk!

    I do wonder how a band aid got out from inside the gloves they are supposed to wear???? Aren't they?

    Shiz happens I suppose...:)

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  30. Lisha - I wouldn't bite on something without first inspecting it. I'm a little OCD that way.

    Vinomom - My first reaction was to return the bread to the store, but I figured calling the 800 number was best.

    kwr - I only shudder thinking of the possibilities.

    Hacksaw - Definitely!

    Inanna - I'm sure you're safe!

    Juanuchis - This has never happened to me before, so I'm chalking it up to an anomaly and letting it go. :-)

    MEL - I would be way more grossed out by a bug!

    Elle - LOL.

    K(arla) - that's what I'm thinking. Someone snipped off a corner of the flour bag and it fell in the mixer.

    Tiff - it just gets wilder around here!

    MsPulp - ramping it up a notch further... LOL.

    3C - nope. LOL.

    A. - In 40 years, I've never had any other problems with bread, so I think we're all safe.

    rosemary - I think we'll just stick with the free coupons. I'm sure it's nothing too nasty.

    Alex - I love bread, which is why I gave it up for Lent. I'll still be buying it.

    3C - I don't even think it's a band-aid, it just has band-aid characteristics and you're right, we're not too bothered. The company is making right on it.

    powdergirl - But, I want a pizza in the WORST way!! A few more weeks...

    Michelle - I don't think it's really a bandage. I'm more inclined to think it's a piece of a bag.

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  31. How *dare* you make me consider baking my own bread! I don't even like to construct sandwiches.

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  32. I'm glad you called them about it. Most people would have simply thrown it all away. Let us know what they do.

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  33. Oh ICK! Ick ick ick! That's all I have to say... Ick.

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  34. Ewww, gross. I hope you get more than just some coupons for free bread, YUCK, ICK, AND ACK!

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  35. My Comment ETW, it was my way of making an attorney JOKE. I apologize ETW for not being more of a humorist.

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  36. Ohh, these stories freak me out!
    My top gross food additive story would have to be the maggots in my dad's Ski Cola bottle (back when they were still glass). They didn't do anything except steal the tainted bottle from him to "examine" it, then act like they knew nothing of it!

    My other fave would have to be the bullets in the coffee box. I worked at a gourmet coffee company's customer service and we got this call. Turns out, they really were in there. The warehouse that packaged the coffee was also used for other things as well- ie BULLETS!

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  37. Pearls - you don't have to worry. I also dread making sandwiches, but it's cheaper than restaurant lunches! :-)

    kenju - I thought about returning it to the store, but figured the company would want to know, just in case.

    LL - Finding "things" in food is never fun. :-)

    The Girl - well, coupons and free shipping to send the tainted slices back to them. LOL.

    rosemary - I thought it was funny - I wish it could be true!

    mary - at least this company is being proactive, and that's fine by me!

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  38. That's pretty disguisting! It good you saw it before slathering with mustard or something.

    Once, many years ago, my Mom found a human top of a thumb in a carton of cottage cheese! The only recourse in those days was the store gave her a fresh container.

    About 3 weeks ago hubby and I were in another town together and decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant we (or I) hadn't been to in a long time. While munching my enchilada, I suddenly had to pull a hair out of my mouth. It wasn't mine! Funny how fast waiters in those places forget how to understand English when
    something like that occurs.

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  39. Jesus loves the evil twinMarch 13, 2009 at 7:15 PM

    I'm sure the Evil Twin wouldn't have noticed. Probably would've just added some extra crunch.

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  40. As the daughter of a (now retired) bread salesman, I appreciate your practical approach to resolution and quality assurance.

    That said, Aaaaah! You're probably right; it's likely part of a bag. Most bakeries are fully (or mostly) automated now.

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  41. Hey! Where did my comment go from earlier?? Did you delete it? It wasn't anything bad! Darn blogger must have eaten it.

    If this is the first time then you gotta cut them some slack, everybody makes a mistake every now and again. Plus the things that will make you freak out are probably the things you will never see.

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  42. The good thing is that it was much less disgusting that I thought it would be. I'm glad that customer service was so helpful. Are they sending you coupons or many (clean) replacements? One word...GOO!!!!

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  43. Fully understand the skeeving. Good thing you saw it before one of your kids dug in and munched it without thinking. It's always good when customer service does their job well. Hope it all works out.
    FMD

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  44. OMG! I would have freaked!! At least you're OK for the most part and getting something out of it for your patronage and still shopping with them. I have heard horror stories like this (well, mac n cheese with bugs of some kind in it!!) but WOW!! Makes you feel that much more grateful for normal bread!!

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  45. I think I would have freaked out. I know there has to be stuff like this that happens all the time. But, a BAND-AID??? OMG!

    Hopefully your next loaf will be free of any "extras"!

    Hugs - Tiff

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  46. total gross out my love- yucky doo

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  47. Carolyn - my mom would gag at just hearing the word "hair". Actually, we could say "ha" and she'd gag. It was hilarious.

    JLTET - You obviously don't really know him. He's very particular about food items.

    Renn - that's what I'm thinking.

    Ron - I totally agree. How 'bout them rat hair particles in Peanut Butter???

    Rangerzfan - exactly. The company is very proactive and I've never had any issues with them, so I'm keeping an open mind here.

    FMD - Exactly. It was seen first thing and then the company's CS was awesome, so it's all good.

    Margaret - I'm sure this was the only loaf in the batch affected. And yep, I'm just happy the company is taking it seriously.

    Tiff - I think it was more "band-aid" like, but not actually a bandage.

    Lisa - LOL!

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  48. Dang that's so nasty! Glad the customer service people were cool about it - they should be. I'm just glad you saw it!

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  49. Sweet Mercy! 50 comments! Sorry I haven't stopped by in awhile but have barely been in the blogosphere at all :-)

    I'll try and do better ;-)

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  50. Ugh...that is so nasty! I'm reading The Jungle right now, and all I can think about are body parts in the lard! SHUDDER!

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  51. You're skeeved???? I'm eating my friggin' lunch. Thank God it's salad and not a sandwich.

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  52. Oh, yick.

    We found a metal shard in a hot dog a few years ago... happily, Jacob was still little enough that we always cut the hotdog into small bites before serving it, so he didn't ingest. Very upsetting. Nothing ever came of it on our end... sucks that I'm not of a more litigious mindset.

    Somehow, though, a shard of metal is less upsetting than a Bandaid.

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