When you’re eating, discovering an unadvertised inclusion in your food can be a particularly distressing event. Whether it’s just an unaccounted for or unanticipated ingredient, an unwanted texture or something that makes it inedible, it can be a disturbing experience for customers who find such inclusions in their food.
One Trader Joe’s customer said she was enjoying a cheese stick manufactured and sold by the private brand when she discovered a hair incorporated into the snack cheese product.
In a video posted to TikTok by user Maddie (@madsmark on TikTok), she shares the experience with over 325,000 viewers. The video shows a close view of herself pulling the dark hair out of the cheese.
“I bought cheese sticks from Trader Joe’s a few days ago and today as I’m eating one and see what looks like a hair in it so I decide to break it open…I’m so disgusted,” a text overlay on the video reads.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Maddie via comment on the video, as well as to Trader Joe’s via email regarding the video.
What can I do if I find something in my food?
Customers who find foreign objects such as hair in purchased prepackaged food can take several steps to make successful complaints against manufacturers:
- Placing the affected food in a container in the freezer
- Taking photos
- Keeping the packaging and receipt for the item
Manufacturers frequently include a phone number to call regarding issues of quality or taste on the packaging, as well.
Can accidentally eating a hair stuck in my food hurt me?
In most cases, it is very unlikely that eating an errant hair will cause real health problems for the average person.
It is still a violation of many sanitary regulations in the U.S, where hair coverings like nets and hats are required to prevent stray hairs from working their way onto the plates of customers.
Some viewers shared that they had similar complaints about prepackaged foods purchased from Trader Joe’s.
“I found a hair in a sealed bag of carrots from TJs once,” one commenter wrote. “This is way worse.”
“My mom was eating their falafel & bit down on a tiny rock & now her tooth is cracked open & it’s going to be expensive af to fix,” another said.
“I used to buy their kale salad for lunch until I found a strand of hair 3x in a row!” a third added. “Hoping that it was just bad luck. Haven’t purchased a salad since and never said anything.”
@madsmark Im SICK
♬ original sound – Maddie Markley
Others shared that they had previously found hair in all kinds of products, not just food, with varying attempts from their manufacturers to try and make it right.
“This happened to my lipstick once and they ended up sending me a dozen lipsticks to replace the one that came with hair,” one commented.
“I opened an Uncrustables the other day and there was a hair sitting on it straight out of the package,” another user wrote. “I was flabbergasted.”
“I found a fingernail in my Knorr rice,” a further user said. “I called Knorr to tell them and sent a picture. Their solution was to send me coupons for free Knorr rice. No thank you.”
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