Dead Frog Found in Can of Kroger Peas
Part 3: Analysis
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Comments: "It did happen," a Kroger representative told me when I recited Bryan Piper's horror story to him over the customer service hotline. "These things can happen, but it's not a very common occurrence. We take the strictest precautions to prevent it."
In this case, he explained, the wayward frog evidently rolled itself into a tiny ball the size and shape of a pea, thus escaping detection during the automated sorting process. Come to find out, this is a fairly well-known phenomenon in the vegetable packing industry.
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He wasn't able to confirm or deny Piper's account of how the company handled his complaint, though according to news coverage by KAKE-TV in Wichita, Piper received a letter of apology from Kroger even though an independent cannery was actually to blame. A spokesman for the cannery confirmed the slip-up and admitted it was not an isolated incident, though oversights of this kind are generally rare, he said. The company claims it has spent millions of dollars on equipment expressly designed to prevent such occurrences.
We're accustomed, of course, to finding out upon investigation that dreadful contamination stories of this ilk are false or, at best, impossible to confirm (e.g., "The McPus Sandwich," "McChickenhead," "Cockroach Egg Tacos," "Kentucky Fried Rat," etc.), thus it's well to be reminded that such incidents really do occur. Every true report lends credence to a host of similar-sounding urban legends, which helps explain why these larger-than-life tales remain popular, indeed comprising their own unique genre of contemporary folklore. It's not, as cynics might claim, because the general public is naive and gullible, but because the stories reflect, albeit in exaggerated form, people's genuine, valid concerns about their own safety and well-being as consumers of a mass-produced, depersonalized food supply.
In recognition of this, it is often said that even the most outlandish urban legends contain at least a small grain of truth. Some, we are now compelled to add, contain an entire legume's worth.
Look before you eat!
Sources and further reading:
Canning Mistake
KAKE-TV News, March 2003
Last updated: 03/29/03
