Horror too close to home

We had a horrific experience today.  It was nearly Gothic in a gory, terrible sense.  And it might not be over.

After noon noon I was making an elaborate lunch for my family, plus our splendid neighbors, Tammy and Erik.  I had finished baking buttermilk bread, had chicken in the oven, and was prepping a series of omelettes.  I took an unopened sausage package out of the fridge, slit open the top, reached inside...

...and noticed a gleam of metal, not one-quarter of an inch from my finger.

A needle.  More than one inch long.  And sharp.

I looked up from the barely-opened package at my friends, my wife, and my children, as the frying pan sizzled with the last pieces of the previous sausage package.  Then I washed my hands, so I could get the camera.

We had bought the sausage from Shaw's, their store in Middlebury, where we've shopped for years.  The brand is Wild Harvest.  So I called that store to alert them.  The manager expressed dismay, and asked me to bring the package down.

We arrived at the store around 4 pm, and spoke with staff.  They assured us that Shaw's would investigate the matter immediately, testing to see if there were any other cases of this.  They pulled the rest of that sausage off the shelves.  We are expecting a call within two days.

I also took this to the Web.  First, I Twittered about it (starting here).  Second, I asked friends in the Brainstorms community for feedback.  Good advice came from both, for which I'm thankful.  Third, I hit the Shaw's "contact us" page.

Several friends pointed out recent stories about needles in food in Australia and Japan.  That's a bit nervous-making.

What next?  Talking with our lawyer.  Posting a couple of images to Flickr.  Waiting to hear back from Shaw's.  Trying not to think about what an inch of sharp metal would have done to my tongue, or gums, or cheeks.  Or, far worse, for my wife, or children, or friends.  And hoping that this is an isolated event, an accident or a freak act of one-time sabotage.

I'll blog more as this goes on.

Comments

[Kevin O'Shea]

I don't know if anyone has suggested it yet, but you might want to get in contact with the bloggers at The Consumerist. They are usually very interested in things like this as a way to alert other consumers to be on the look out.

http://www.consumerist.com

Keep us posted on the situation!

[Andrew Connell]

Holy Hell, this is shocking!! Thankfully you saw it before anyone was hurt! While I don't have any suggestions that haven't already been posed, I'm with Kevin that I would very much like to know how this turns out. Good luck!

[Jeff Jones]

Oh well, you have experienced what many, many people experience every single day, every single week of every single year... LOTS of STUFF in our Processed food mi amigo de Goth! Bits of glass, metal, plastic.... that's just the stuff you can see... don't want to get into the stuff you can't... especially in a package of sausage! Wild Harvest indeed, should be quite a few pieces of some "wild" stuff in that there package. I would field at least one call a week from a customer complaining of "foreign" objects in their food... don't worry about the lawyer, nothing he/she can do... they are all well-insulated from you and any lawyer you can come up with. You got initiated into the matrix of Big Food!
(and you were a little lucky!)

[Julie Fricke]

Bryan, I'm so glad to hear that no one was harmed. Scary stuff! Do let us know what happens.

[Diane Foster]

So it went through a sausage grider??? Come on, dog. Then a metal detector??? And you just happened to see it etc etc. Sounds like a scam to me..........

[Bryan Alexander]

Thank you for the tip, Kevin. Will do.

Thank you, Andrew and Julie. Will do.

I think you're right, Jeff. Count this as a radicalization moment.

One would hope it went through a sausage grinder, Diane. Is that what happened to your comment?

[Tanya]

Diane, when would the sausage have gone through a metal detector?

Bryan, very glad no one was injured from this. Creepy!

[Diane Foster]

Yes, of course I meant grinder; obviously a typo. Doesn't detract from the point though (point? Get it?). Having worked in a sausage plant I can tell you there is no way that a needle could be manufactured in, they aren't even used. All product goes through an induction field metal detector which is tested every hour or so with a test piece; written records are kept. Dog, you are on a loser with the "lawyer" (do I smell "money-claim" here?).

[Steven Kaye]

Clearly Bryan is part of an international conspiracy trying to bankrupt sausage manufacturers across the globe, as demonstrated by the Australian and Japanese stories.

Thank goodness Diane was here to alert us to the threat.