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When you're at a fancy restaurant and are telling the chef "Surprise me", you're hoping for something good. A secret ingredient, a beautiful presentation, maybe even a song and dance number, if you're in one of those places.
What you don't expect is something straight out of a horror movie: a screw, a bug, a slug, or a piece of a plastic bag. Unfortunately, the people from this list each had a taste of at least one of these. We don't recommend snacking while scrolling through this list, as some of the disgusting finds might seriously put you off food. Keep these in mind the next time you order from that poorly rated food joint at 2 A.M.
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#1
Found A Fake Nail In My Yiros
RELATED:
#2
Why Is There A Screw In One Of My Fries?
Just was shaking my fries in the air fryer and noticed this metal on metal sound. When inspecting my fries I found this screw driven into one of my fries. Just opened the bag.. WTF?
#3
Someone Did Not Close The Rice Cooker Lid Properly
Guess the dogs will have rice for lunch.
Our apologies in advance, Pandas – most entries in this list might be quite unappetizing. At the same time, foreign objects in food is quite an important topic. You've got to admit it – hardly anyone wants to end up with a stranger's fingernail in their dinner. So, how does it happen? And can people do something about it if they find something unwanted in their food?
If this list aggravates your anxiety about chomping on something unwanted when taking a bite out of that juicy fast-food burger, don't be that alarmed. Relatively recent research shows that, in the past 20 years, about one in 10 recalls of foods happened because of foreign objects. And the object most often found in food is plastic fragments – so, not that horribly gross.
#4
Found A Nose Ring In My Taco Bell Today!
#5
This Bee Was In A Vanilla Wafer, I Was Serving Food For Daycare Kids
The stinger side of a bee/ wasp was in this vanilla wafer. I was preparing food for a daycare, glade I caught it. And yes it was a real bee, I opened the wafer and looked at it.
#6
Lost My Appetite
Found this spider in my ham today. Yuck. Into the bin it goes. Now i need to find something else to make the kids for lunch. seriously so so gross.
On the other hand, The Washington Post just reported that there's been an increase in foreign objects found in food in 2025. Brands such as Chef's Line and Nestlé had to recall their products because customers complained about possible "metal bolts" and the presence of "wood-like material", respectively.
Some bad stuff in food we don't see. When food gets contaminated with pathogens, we're less likely to know that the meatball we ate was from a particularly bad batch. Just last year, there was a deadly listeria outbreak caused by Boar's Head deli meat. McDonald's onions were linked to E. coli outbreaks. Even cucumbers were thought to be infected with salmonella.
#7
Disgusting
My mom went to Costco on Hostetter Road in San Jose. One of the items she picked up was a bag of “PREWASHED” spinach. Last night when she opened the bag to make dinner, she found a DEAD MOUSE! Make sure not to buy it and if you’ve already bought it, toss the bag!
#8
Razor Blade Found In Food At Empire Halal Kabab & Grill
#9
Bit Into An Earring Back
I wish finishing my leftover Zaxbys and i was chewing and I felt something hard so I spit it out. I for real could have swallowed this. And also if I go back to the Zaxbys will they give me money back, or just think I’m lying, what should I do
It's no surprise that people's trust in the government to stop these things from happening has eroded. Last year, Gallup found that people's trust in the federal government to ensure the safety of food supply was at a record low since 1999. Folks don't trust grocery shops much, either. Only 74% of the respondents said they trust that food at supermarkets is safe to eat.
#10
Moldy Pasta From Pizza Hut
Me and my SO ordered pasta from Pizza Hut and it had mold on it.
#11
Found A Dead Caterpillar In My Sealed Grocery Store Salad
#12
I See Your School Food And Raise You Us Navy Food!
After 20 years in the US Navy, school food looks like a 5 star restaurant compared to what we had to eat.
People caring about what they are putting in their bodies plays a role in this worsening lack of trust, too. At least 50% of Americans say they're trying to eat more healthy foods; that's why awareness about food safety has become so important.
Amanda Deering, associate professor of food science at Purdue University, agrees. "Ten years ago it was a different thing. People weren't so wanting to have that information. Right now, they go looking for it," she said, referring to customers wanting to know where their food comes from.
#13
Found Inside My Taco Bell Meal. I Feel Sick
pfeils wife 8 months ago
Finding it right away, before even taking one bite is one thing... finding it after you've just about finished the entire meal.. 🤮
#14
Was Opening A Fresh Loaf Of Bread
I bought a fresh loaf of bread from the store and was excited for my sandwich. Look at him waving at me, I guess my lunch is a no go.
#15
Ordered Indian Takeout And Found A Baggy In My Curry
How can we protect ourselves from pathogens in foods? With foods such as meat and vegetables that we cook, heat almost always does the job for us. It's fruit and fresh vegetables that we mostly have to worry about. Running water is good at getting rid of microorganisms on the surface of foods. Applying some pressure with hands during rinsing can help remove even more of them, as does drying them off with a towel.
#16
Thai Man Discovers Venomous Snake Frozen Inside Ice Cream
#17
I Found Blue Plastic In My High End Brand Deli Meat
#18
I Found What Looks To Be A Piece Of A Wooden Pallet In My Bagel Sandwich This Morning
Thee8thsense 8 months ago
I found a hard, red plastic piece (like from a bike reflector) in my bagel once.
Some people even prefer to rinse their veggies and fruit with solutions made from vinegar, baking soda, or lemon. But food scientist Linda Harris told NPR that this is going a bit overboard. She recommends not soaking produce in a bowl, as one piece of bacteria from one veggie might contaminate the water and everything else in the bowl.
#19
I Ordered Some Food For Delivery Today (In Sf) And There's A Massive Metal Handle In My Food. Got A Partial Refund From Doordash
#20
This Rotisserie Chicken My Sister Bought Came With The Rod Still Attached
#21
Chipped Tooth From Screw In Pizza
Went to Tescos half an hour ago - cooked the pizza I purchased - bit down on something rock solid and felt a pop in my back tooth There was a screw in my Pizza has chipped my tooth. What do I do? Any Americans confused, Tesco is basically a Walmart, with less stuffing.
Speaking of things being found where they shouldn't be, experts say that the biggest concern for manufacturers about foreign objects found in produce is traces of metal. Luckily, they do X-ray screenings to detect any stuff of that kind that shouldn't be there. Granted, it doesn't really safeguard against things like plastic, wood, and objects of human origin ending up in your food.
#22
On Valentine's Night, During Dinner, Guess What I Bit Down On!
#23
A Side That Wasn’t Expected
#24
My Wife’s Salad At Texas Road House Last Night
Our waiter was more than apologetic, the restaurant manager came by to apologize literally just said sorry, and then ran off. And yes, this was down in the salad. My wife took a small bite of it before she realized she was chewing paper.
Insects, larvae, and other critters sometimes find their way into our produce. The FDA, however, anticipates these kinds of 'extra ingerdients'. Their Food Defect Levels Handbook states: "It is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects."
#27
There’s A Dead Moth In My Cadbury’s Chocolate
Tilly’syellowsnowman 7 months ago (edited)
I have such a chocolate addictioń I’d probably just eat around it lol!
So, what do you do if you find a latex glove in your burger? If you want to complain, experts recommend preserving the evidence as best as you can. That means putting the food with the foreign object in a safe container and then popping it into a freezer. It's also useful to keep the packaging and receipt, and take photographs of said food.
#28
I Ordered A Cheddar Mcmelt Without Onions. It Came Not Only With Onions, But With Whatever Rubber Thing This Is In It
I didn't even get full refund, I got the price of the burger in the combo (13R$ out of the 37R$ I paid) back (which isn't enough to even buy another one outside a combo), and iFood didn't even give me the option to get it replaced or something. F**k this McDonald's, 3rd order I get from them and 3rd time they get it wrong.
Lowrider 56 7 months ago
My step-son worked in a well known fast food place. After he told me what goes on in there, I don't eat in those places anymore.
#29
Thanks For The Sticker On The Tomato In My Sandwich
#30
Towards End Of My Meal At A Fancy Restaurant I Bit Into Something Chewy, A Cigarette Filter
Dear Pandas that are still here with us and withstood the test of the grossest food finds – which ones shocked you the most? Have you ever found something unpleasant and unexpected in your food? Share your experiences with us in the comments! And if you feel strong enough to stomach more similar pics, check out our other articles about unusual and unexpected things in foods that people had the unfortune to find.
#31
The Bay Leaf Inside My Pâté Was Actually Plastic With A Leaf Pattern Printed On It
#32
The Honey My Mom Received As A Gift Had A Bee In It
#33
I Found This In My Fountain Drink.. After I Already Drank Half Of It
i have no idea what this is but I’m preparing to get 78 diseases or something
Thee8thsense 8 months ago
Ewe!! I was driving across country years ago, and had gone through some states in which I couldn't find iced coffee anywhere. Finally, upon entering California, I found some and ordered the biggest one they sold. I was sitting in the passenger side of our car, really enjoying my coffee, sucking it through a straw, when suddenly felt something in my mouth. I freaked out, and spit it hard onto the dashboard. It was a large, dead black fly. So gross.
#34
I Found A Live Slug In The Bottom Of A Mint Container That I Just Used To Make A Huge Bowl Of Tzatziki
i’m good about washing my produce after a food poisoning incident a while back, but admittedly never thought to wash herbs in those little containers! i’ll be honest about my mistake in the hopes of teaching others who may not know—i figured the herbs were pre-washed like other produce that are in plastic containers. i made a huge thing of tzatziki with a good amount of mint and was obviously tasting it the whole time to get the seasonings right. I was about to use the mint for something else and noticed a brown ball thing. picked it up and it turned out to be a slug. I nearly gagged but i’m glad i noticed!! i’m glad i had more ingredients to remake the recipe since i had to throw this batch away.
ALWAYS WASH YOUR PRODUCE EVEN IF YOU THINK IT’S CLEAN!
#35
Tb To The Time I Found An O-Ring In The String Cheese I Was About To Give To My Toddler. Totally Ghosted By The Company, With No Reassurance Of Quality Standards
Total of 8 sparse emails between us. Company told me they wanted me to send them the cheese back, that they’d send me a package with ice packs to mail back to them. They did not. I repeatedly emailed them, to get little response back. Eventually, I just never heard back.
#36
Make Sure To Check Your Food From Fast Food Places. Seems Like Common Sense, But I Never Expected This. And Yes, I Took A Bite
#37
Found A Bolt In My Seafood Soup
#38
Found A Snail In My Dinner. I’d Already Eaten Most Of The Bag Too
#39
My Coworker Pulled This Giant Shard Of Glass Out Of Her Mouth From A Meal She Got At Taco Bell. About An Inch Big
#40
Unknown Creature Pupating In My Pistachios?
#41
Found Black Mold In My Almond Milk Drinking Carton. Am I Going To Die From Drinking This?
#42
Atleast They Gave Me A Free Cheeseburger
#43
I Wanted To Buy A Sandwich At This Bakery. First I Thought It's Sesame. Well It's Not
#44
What Is This Thing? I Found It In A Frozen Meal. It’s Sharp And Hard, Spiky, And Brown-Ish Coloured
#45
This Needle Thing Was Just Found In A Hamburger At A Lexington, Ky McDonald's - What Is It?
#46
Got A Croissant At Dunkin Donuts. When I Bit Into It At Work I Found A Screw In It
Apologies, I did not have a banana for scale. As the title says I bit into the screw. Luckily, not hard. It was a croissant with butter. I'm convinced it was baked into it and not a careless employee who ignored it when buttering the croissant. I tried calling them through the phone on the google maps listing but no luck. I know they no longer bake these things at the stores, they get them from a distributor so I wanted to tell them to toss their batch. Since they didn't answer their phone I tried social media but that was slow and all they did was take my info and said the franchise owner would get back to me.
After work I went back with the half eaten croissant and screw and the rest of my order. The manager wasn't there but they called them. Over the phone the manager apologized and asked me questions about it, I told them what I thought they should do and they said they were gonna reach out to their supplier and agreed to give me a refund. And I guess that's it. If I hear back from the franchise owner I'll ask what other stores their supplier also delivers to so I can avoid those locations. If they don't tell me, then I guess I'm done with DD.
#47
Weird Growth On My Avocado Seed
Heir of Durin 8 months ago
One response on Reddit says: I am an Ag scientist. Not an avocado expert but my guess would be ethylene exposure (or a mutation making ethylene not necessary) causing the seed to begin germination. During nascent stages in life, plants form “callus” which is likely the white and yellow tissue in the picture. Callus is just a mass of undifferentiated cells that haven’t decided what they are going to be yet (like stem cells i hear). So what you likely have here is a seed that started growing and then got very confused about what to grow into and so put its energy into developing callus.
#49
Bit Down On This Eating Dominos Pizza After A Long Day. Thought It Was A Burnt Topping, But It's Actually A Chunk Of Wood
Like just a burnt hunk of wood, the size of a potato wedge. How? Where would this even come from in a mega-chain kitchen?
#51
Fingernail Found In Buccees Beef Jerky
More than mildly infuriating but I'm disgusted. I bought this jerky last night at a buccees in Kentucky and I was finishing up the crumbs at the bottom of the bag when I bit on something that felt like sand or dirt, I spit it out and it's a dirty fingernail. I'm in Florida now so it's not like I can go back to the store but like how does this even happen? Are they packaging this stuff without gloves?
#52
I Bought Myself A Set Of Chocolates After A Bad Day. This Is What's In Them
I've been having the roughest time, so I bought myself ~FaNcY~ chocolate from a boutique chocolate shop.
They were $3 each and I found out after I got home that they had molded.
#53
Found A Frozen Bolt In My Bag Of Frozen Fries
#54
Photo Of Frog Found In My Colleague's Salad
#55
Found A Whole Plastic Glove Inside This Salad How?????? Was The Hand In It Clean? Where Did The Glove Touch? How Clean Was It?
#56
Wtf Has Frozen In My Ice Cube
Out for brunch and I spy this alien spore frozen inside my ice cube?
#57
Arby Treat For Me. Manager Didn’t Even Apologize
#58
Was Enjoying This Sandwich Until I Bit Into A Pointy Twig. How Does This Even Happen?
#59
Extra Garnish, No Extra Charge
#62
Why Are There Shrimp Tails In My Cereal?
#63
Today I Was Eating A Raspberry. I Found A Slime Snail In It And I Cried. Ew It Was Gross. Never Eating Them Again
#64
Spider In My Iced Tea In The Middle Of The Night And I Almost Drank It
Felt something in my mouth when going to drink it this morning and spit it back into the cup to see what it was. Nearly perished right then and there. New fear unlocked.
#65
I Found This Thing In My Food. It Was Just Stuck To A Piece Of Meat; It Wasn't Lodged Into It Or Anything. Anyone Know What It Is?
#67
The Chocolate My Work Gave Us As A Christmas Gift Had Bugs Inside Of It
I wasn't the only one, I just thought it was a rumour going around my workplace but low it happened to me too :') I feel bad because it definitely wasn't my store managers fault and they were trying their best for us
#69
Look At What I Found In My Mcdonalds
Took a couple bites before I realize that was not a burnt mark.....
#70
Found This In My Taco Bell Nachos
This was already after I complained about not getting extra guac when I paid for extra guac. And on top of that I got veggie nachos and they gave me meat so I had to have them remake it still without extra guac.
#71
Bought Pickled Veggies, Got Pickled Stink Bug
Extra protein! (I'm scared of stink bugs)
Not as sucky as other submissions on here, but I was sad and really craving a sour snack
#72
Roach Crawled Into My Food And Died While I Was Cooking It
#75
My Fiancé Found This In Her Soup At Panera. Like Seriously, A Corner I Get But The Whole Bag?
#76
Had A Screw In My Mouth Thinking It Was A Chicken Bone
Okay a bit more than mildly infuriating but I’m just glad I didn’t chomp down on my food. All seriousness though what kind of demands can I make from the company? They offered me three free bowls of food but I feel like I should be able to get more.
#77
Found An Animal Jaw Bone In With My Carrots
Brought a bag of odd bunch carrots from Hobsonville Woolworths and was very surprised. I took it back to them and got a refund.
#79
Found These In My Cooked Spaghetti. The Sauce Was Canned
Cybill Troy 8 months ago
Those are rosary peas! VERY poisonous and deadly to humans, contains abrin (more toxic than ricin)
#80
Spider ID Request: Texas (USA) - In My Food
#81
This Metal Rod Was In My Dad’s Burger
#82
Lasagne Day. 4 Hours Cooking The Meat. 1 Hour Making And Rolling The Pasta. Go To Make My Roux And…
Yes. Those brown flex’s are moving.
#85
There Was A Moving Worm In My Pizza At A Fancy Restaurant In Italy
#89
Bug Was In My Meal At A Nice Restaurant And The Server Explained That It’s A Good Thing, Shows You How Fresh And Organic The Food Is
My garden is fresh too and I wash my veggies… and I’m not paying $40/plate for a bug.
#90
Was Looking Forward To Eating A Frozen Microwaved Chimichanga And Midway Found A Staple Inside Of It
I know the prefrozen burritos aren't healthy, but I had the munchies.
#91
I Found This In My Chipotle Burrito Bowl… Luckily I Felt It As I Was Biting Down And Immediately Spit It Out
#92
Only Realised The Cereal Was Full Of Ants After Eating Like 80%
It wasn't even that old... Like a couple weeks maybe.
#93
Cut Open A Capsicum I Bought This Morning To Find The Inside Full Of Mold
Went out to the shops this morning to get a bunch of groceries to cook with this afternoon, only to find that my capsicum wasn’t in fact as fresh as I had hoped. Ironic coming from a company whose slogan is “The fresh food people”.
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What do you think ?
Rose the Cook 8 months ago
The number of false fingernails, surely it is just common sense that you don't wear or employ workers with false fingernails in food preparation.
T.M.P Janssen 8 months ago (edited)
One time when my parents won a cruise trip and took me along, I had a piece of glass in my ice cream, about the size of my middle finger. Seriously, I didnt know how pale a person can become. They had to collect EVERY dessert of that batch. The head waiter apologized over and over again, offered me double and triple of Créme Brûle (which I normally ate) but I wasnt hungry after that. We got chocolate covered strawberries as an apology. I still see the face of the man, he was truly disturbed by this. Nice man. I hope he's doing fine.
Martinna Jaap 8 months ago
I found a very much alive female black widow spider inside some purple grapes I had purchased from our local Walmart. I live in central Alberta and we don’t have these spiders here so I know she had to have travelled a very long way. She had made a web right inside the cluster of grapes. Good thing I always wash and check grapes before consuming them. It was a bit scary as she could have easily bitten me.
Rose the Cook 8 months ago
The number of false fingernails, surely it is just common sense that you don't wear or employ workers with false fingernails in food preparation.
T.M.P Janssen 8 months ago (edited)
One time when my parents won a cruise trip and took me along, I had a piece of glass in my ice cream, about the size of my middle finger. Seriously, I didnt know how pale a person can become. They had to collect EVERY dessert of that batch. The head waiter apologized over and over again, offered me double and triple of Créme Brûle (which I normally ate) but I wasnt hungry after that. We got chocolate covered strawberries as an apology. I still see the face of the man, he was truly disturbed by this. Nice man. I hope he's doing fine.
Martinna Jaap 8 months ago
I found a very much alive female black widow spider inside some purple grapes I had purchased from our local Walmart. I live in central Alberta and we don’t have these spiders here so I know she had to have travelled a very long way. She had made a web right inside the cluster of grapes. Good thing I always wash and check grapes before consuming them. It was a bit scary as she could have easily bitten me.
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