A woman found more than just caramel in her Starbucks frappe and people are telling her to sue.
People, unfortunately, find weird and disgusting things in their food all the time, from a bug in a premade salad to literal dead roaches in a Combo pretzel-baked bag.
In a viral video just shy of a million views, a woman shared the strange thing she found in her Starbucks drink.
In the TikTok, Binx (@beepunzel) explained that she doesn’t normally get Starbucks but was really craving it that day so she stopped by for a caramel frappuccino.
But she quickly noticed that something was off. She dumped the drink into a strainer and found dozens upon dozens of pieces of “sharp, hard white plastic.”
“It was like neverending, I could not believe it,” Binx said.
There could have been some nasty consequences if Binx had unknowingly slurped down those alleged plastic chunks.
“All I can imagine is how badly that could have scraped your throat going down… I hope you are ok girl this is so scary,” a person pointed out in the comments section.
Though small, the sharp plastic pieces could create tears in the esophagus (the tube connecting your mouth and stomach, stomach, large and small intestine, and rectum.) This can lead to infection and body pains, Harvard Health and an ER site reported.
@beepunzel Starbucks Caramel Frapp with a side of sharp HARD plastic 🥲 #starbucksdrinks @Starbucks #starbucks ♬ original sound – Binx
Some commenters offered possible explanations
“It looks like one of the caps for the peach juice/strawberry puree, get your money back sis,” a person shared.
“I bet they blended the scoop !!!!!!!!” another added.
“It looks like the oat milk cap don’t know how thats possible as a starbucks barista i have never had anything like this happen,” a barista chimed in.
And many others told her this was her opportunity to sue the coffee giant and maybe get some money out of it.
“Oh bestie lawyer up,” the top comment read.
Unfortunately, on a larger scale, studies have found that while people may not be ingesting plastic chunks, the general population does have microplastics (pieces less than 5 millimeters across) in their bodies, Science News reported.
Microplastics have been found in all parts of the body, including the lungs, maternal and fetal placental tissues, breast milk, and blood.
The thing is, people interact with plastics on a daily basis. It’s part of clothing, cosmetics, electronics, and most packaging.
“There were around 3,000 [plastic materials] when I started researching microplastics over a decade ago,” microplastics scientist Heather Leslie told Science News. “Now there are over 9,600. That’s a huge number, each with its own chemical makeup and potential toxicity.”
While there is no definitive information yet on how microplastics affect human bodies, research has shown it could lead to health risks such as endocrine disruption, weight gain, insulin resistance, decreased reproductive health, and cancer, the United Nations reported.
The Daily Dot reached out to Binx for comment via TikTok direct message and to Starbucks via email.
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