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What's worse than finding a rat in your Italian green beans?
Finding half a rat...
What's worse than finding a rat in your Italian green beans?
Finding half a rat...
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Ahahahahahahaha at Wal-Mart's response.
Of course they do!
besides the only thing Wal-mart takes seriously is making money.
It sounds like they're saying that while finding a rat head is gross, it's cooked to the point where it isn't unsanitary (although amazingly gross).
Are corporations wrong for offering money to someone after the customer expresses that they're unsatisfied over something?
I do love their explanation. It basically tells you this food is grown outside exposed to nature. A lot of stuff has touched it, get over it. That is why we sterilize every can. The risk to you, zero. I agree with Allen's, you all need to get over it. And as for walmart, who cares. This complaint was stupid and therefore a stupid response is warranted.
top priority as usual
@rjgnyc: They're not offering money because the customer is dissatisfied. They're offering money to shut the customer up.
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Is it bad that it made me laugh to read that it was a dead rat's head, as opposed to a non-dead rat's head?
I agree that it is something that happens, but I'd be hard pressed to buy from a brand I'd found a dead animal's entire head in.
There are far worse things on people's own unwashed hands.
Concerned_Citizen are u serious, so it shouldnt be a big deal if rat heads show up in our cans of food, as long as they are sterile, no no you cannot be serious im sorry that would be too absurd for you to actually think that would be ok for rat heads to be in our food
otherwise you cannot have any idea of the danger of disease a rat poses, hell you can die just from rat urine, never mind ingest the rat itself
@rasbill:
I talked with a guy once that worked in a plant where they can peas. He said if the boss rides them too much and they have a bad day, they all stand up and pee in the peas after he leaves.
I told him that was disgusting and possibly criminal, but he felt he was \"getting back at his boss\". And then told me it's probably in my best interest to not eat peas that came from that plant.
To this day I've never eaten peas again.
There are much worse things that a sterile rat head.
I LOVE that Allen's offered up a whopping 200 bucks to keep this quiet -- did they just scrounge around in couch cushions and coat pockets to come up with that particular dollar amount?
\"Hey, maybe we can sweeten the pot for you a little -- how would you like a free can of our delicious green beans, PLUS the 200 smackers? ...there may be a prize inside...\"
As disgusting as this is, what's wrong with Allen's offering the person $200? What else are they supposed to do? Other than giving the person $200 and not asking for a non-disclosure agreement, maybe.
Good to know a wedding caterer is buying canned green beans a Wal-Mart. You stay classy Texas!
@ClankBoomSteam: I think by offering only $200, it looks as though, \"okay, shit happens, we're sorry.\" instead of offering up $50,000 and making themselves look guilty for something they obviously can't control 100%.
@Dakine: Trouble is, the $200 was offered in exchange for not talking about it --it obviously wasn't enough to encourage the 'victim' to keep his mouth shut, so Allen's is left looking like both a company that's willing to offer hush money, and a company that's too cheap or too dumb to do it right. Wow.
No, Consumerist, no. PLEASE, PLEASE put these pictures under the jump. With a warning.
I can't even read about this but suffice to say, I think that anything Allen's offered was not enough,
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That's a pretty small bribe! You'd think they'd offer at least $500 if not more! It'd be worth it to keep the reputation from being sullied even more since it has already happened before (another rat head found in that Utah woman's can of beans).
Cheap bastards!
Still, i don't think it's really that big of a deal. It's not a perfect system. Nobody is growing beans in a lab. We eat stuff that is inherently filthy. Chickens are nasty animals. Pigs live in their own shit. We pet our dogs while eating a bag of chips. There are insect parts in just about everything you can think of.
But because it's a rat head, it gets top billing. Where i live the rats live in the trees. There are lizards everywhere crapping on everything. Mongoose running around digging through the trash, centipedes, roaches......
it's a filthy world. It sounds to me like this guy was looking to score big money off it, and Allen's didn't play that game. He probably put the rat head in there himself.
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Even more disgusting, what kind of wedding caterer serves canned food from Wal-Mart? That's the bigger crime here.
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Heh...and I just finished reading Fast Food Nation, how apropros. At least with beans you can SEE what's not supposed to be in there. Now think about all those yummy wieners and burgers out there...
I thin I just lost my lunch.
\"Oh Mom there are green beans in my can of rat soup!\"
Did they look inside the head for the secret decoder ring?
With the massive flooding in the midwest, we may all have to start looking at the \"other other white meat\" very soon: Rat.
We have plenty of rat in this country..... enough to feed everyone. When corn goes higher than oil, rat is gonna start looking pretty damn delicious.
Ugh, this wedding caterer is serving crappy canned beans from Walmart? I hate crappy wedding food!
Dakine dude your just twisted, were all trying to live in a modern society, glad to know your weist deep in lizard shit though
Having worked in the commercial pest control and food safety field for many years, I can tell you what Allen's company said is exactly right. There is no way to 100% prevent this from happening, the consumer is the last level of quality control and compared to what food safety practices where 100 or even 10 years ago, American made food is the safest in the world! Food processing automation comes with problems, but as long as the company (should have less vague, but due to liability laws in this country) owned up to the accident in which it did and gave the public an education of what happened they have done the right thing. Now ask why did PETCO allow their ongoing rodent problem infest so much product and where was their Pest Control supplier?! Human or animal is still food.
@hypoxia: thank you! I thought I was the only one wondering that! Then i realized its Texas. The beans wereprobably meant to go with the armadillo entree.
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I found a frog once in a can of Green Giant Green Beans. I was turned off from canned vegetables (and fruit) from that day on and now I only eat frozen or fresh.
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Sorry Carey, but I fail to see how this is Wal-mart's fault at all. They bought the beans under the impression that Allen's gave them. Seriously editors on here mention wal-mart in anything they can. Reminds me of how bush uses the words terror and 9/11, in converstions that have nothing to do with either one.
Wal-mart doesn't own the factory, nor employ any rogue rat agents to infiltrate canned beans. I just don't see how Wal-mart could have avoided this other than not sell that name brand. And still how would they have know that this brand contained rat heads? I'm sure it wasn't advertised to them that way. Plus I'd be willing to bet that other stores besides Wal-mart sells the same beans.
How this is Wal-mart's fault is beyond me.
I have ate a Wendy's since the whole finger in the chili, and remember how that turned out folks?- It was bullshit. someone who didn't work for wendy's put the finger there (their friend had previously lost) and basically tried to get some free money.
@snoop-blog: If Wal-mart wanted out of their contract with Allen's they could have put the rat head in there to give them reason to terminate early.
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@hypoxia: Probably the one working for the wedding couple where they're all wearing \"cowboy\" attire, the bride rides in on a horse and they ride off together, newly married in his Ford pickup with the \"groomsmen\" shooting rifles in the air as they drive off into the dusty sunset.
Rednecks my good man... rednecks.
(I can say that cause I are one.)
In another thought... does allen's have a plant near petco?
if this were a Chinese wedding that would be a delicacy.
If Kathy Turner says it is safe to consume then how come she won't eat it? Uhm, cause it's fucking disgusting>
Did the lable metion any thing about a free prize in every can?
I have a hard time believing the rat got caught up in the process from the field. It is more likely the rat got caught up in the process in the manufacturing facility and that is far more gross. It is also why the FDA shut down that Petco distribution center. It is a health hazard. Even if you want to believe their nonsense about the rat head being sterile from being canned the beans are clearly unpure. There are also standards of how much non food can be in a product before the FDA see's it as unfit for consumption. There is some quotient of how many rat hairs can be in peanut butter.
Walmart becomes an issue because they pressure their vendors to cut corners in order to lower wholesale costs to Walmart. I would guess that Walmart may be the only customer Allen's has.
Canned green beans in a wedding buffet? Ewwh.
I've eaten rat, and frankly, it was better than canned green beans.
The $200 doesn't sound like enough but it may be why we've never heard a story about somebody finding a rat's ass in their beans. I'd like to know, though, if one end of the rat gets you a bigger paycheck than the other.
You can have quality or you can have cheap.....Walmart sells cheap at any cost and this is what you get. Cheap may be OK for t-shirts and baby bibs but quality is what you want for eating.
\"Food safety is a top priority at Wal-Mart. We take customer concerns seriously.\" Taking it seriously?
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Yuck!
For $200, my voice cannot be bought. However for $2,000, my voice can be rented.
@Concerned_Citizen: Couldn't agree more. It'd gross me out, but it's life and nature and processing.
Peaches come from a can,
They were put there by a man
In a factory downtown
If I had my little way,
Id eat peaches every day
Sun-soakin bulges in the shade
My biggest question is, where is the rest of the rat?
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@Mr_Human: Mr. Human, I see your $5, and raise you $5
Concerned_Citizen, you'll make yourself a cool $15 by eating that rat head. It's perfectly sterile and a ok to eat, right? You should have no problem.
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OMG EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW
What needs to be considered is this:
Did they eat the green beans BEFORE finding the rat?
If yes... then there could potentially be a suit filed for mental anguish or something like that. I'm no lawyer, so I don't know.
If not... then reimbursement for the green beans seems more than sufficient. Offering the money along with a non-disclosure agreement was probably a bit much, and they probably could have gone without the NDA. Had they done that, and the customer accepted the money and then turned around bad mouthing them, they may have a leg to stand on to get the customer to shut up (since they in essence would have resolved the issue and the customer was attempting to portray them in a negative light.)
Seriously, errors are made and you can't expect everything to be 100% perfect. If I found a rat's head (or anything else) in a can of food, I'd put it back in the can, take it down to the grocery store, swap it out, and go home and cook some food. Now... if that second can had something similar in it, it'd go back to the store and swapped out for a different brand!
There are a lot more disgusting things that end up in your mouth on a daily basis that you don't even realize, so whatever.
In other news: How come I have to submit comments TWICE before they actually get posted?
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The real crime here is this guy is catering weddings with Allen's green beans? I'd sue him if that was the food he served at my wedding, rat head or not.
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Maybe he mis-read the can, and it was actually supposed to be a can of ratatouille.
oh shit that is a rather nauseating thought......
\"...But, so far, the only thing his ratting out of the canning company got him was a health department warning to shut down his *unlicensed* catering business or face a $200 fine....\"
LMAO what an idiot!
It's not about the money. It's about cleanliness,\" Cane said.
WOW it's not about money? What a load of shit!
No charge for the extra protein
This is disgusting... just plain disgusting.
Good thing my child isn't old enough to read, or she would be using this excuse as why she doesn't want to eat her greenies.
Makes me wonder where the rest of the body is... I'm waiting the accompanying complaint letter on Consumerist from the 2nd lucky buyer of this canned green beans with the rest of the \"sterilized\" body...
$200!?!? What the heck... that's NOTHING.... well, I would take it and still report it. Spend the $200 on another competitors' green beans :) (well, not all of it!)
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@Dakine: If the economy keeps tanking, we might be paying extra for cans with rat parts... just for the added protein.
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@n0ia:
I think the point of the rat head being sterile is that if you DID eat some of the beans before you found it, you aren't going to get sick and die, it's not harmful that way.
And as far as posting twice is concerned, try checking preview comment before posting, I found that to help when my posts weren't coming up on the site.
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Wait, Allen as in Allen Canning Company? I know where that is-although the plant I know isn't a green bean canner so much as spinach.
I've said too much.
This is a great marketing opportunity! They could change their slogan to Cracker Jacks slogan - \"A surprise in every can.\"
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Mmmmm, now that's good rat!!!
Or should I say ...
\"Rat heads, rat heads, roly-poly rat-heads...rat heads, rat heads, eat them up, yum!!!\"
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I'd rather find a \"dead rat head\" than a live rat head, because that would be just, well, supernaturally terrifying. Especially if it started trying to communicate. So I'm glad that point was cleared up.
There used to be a hired geek (in the old carnival sense) who worked for Coke, I think, and went into court when these cases were filed--he consumed whatever bug, rodent bit, or unknown item found floating in the bottle to show that it was harmless. No harm, no foul, not counting of course the psychological shot. But that was back in the day when nobody was allowed to have mental traumas, so I guess it worked out ok.
And for those of you questioning the culinary fitness of canned Walmart beans at a wedding--didn't you note the tinfoil serving dishes? You know there were at least half a dozen, with baked beans, taters of some kind, some chili, some BBQ, and either some fruited jello or a big old 'nanner pudding.
\"Poor Ratatouille, he was our best chef.\"
No wonder why the green beans tasted like chicken.
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If your caterer shops at Walmart, it's time to get a new caterer.
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What's interesting is the lack of financial incentive. It doesn't shock me that a rat head would show up in any canned food. In mass production things are going to happen and quality will suffer. If I were the company, I would offered to pay the person, maybe 1500 bucks if an independent lab showed that it was in fact brined in green bean juice. I wouldn't have attached an NDA to it. The NDA come in with a second offering- that's just good PR practice.
It worries me, as a small offering like $200 U.S. says either it happens a lot, or they don't care about how customers view them. I am completely willing to believe that people make this stuff up and try to get money out of them, but the cash offering just seems insulting. They would have been better off apologizing and not offering money and explain why they don't offer money beyond a refund.
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You can't help but wonder where the rest of the rat ended up.
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Just out of curiosity, I wonder how much the caterer was charging the bride to simply open cans of green beans from Wal-Mart and pour them into a flimsy 49 cent aluminum tray? $400? $800? $1000?
Well, at least the didn't just pick out the rats head and serve it to the wedding guests anyway.
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@ceejeemcbeegee: A lot, maybe $50 for the green beans if you actually itemized the cost of every dish served. Most caterers lump it into 'packages' and claim that they're saving you money, but chances are they're just using them as an excuse to cut costs.
postnocomments: First thing I thought too.
@Youthier: +1 AGREED. Consumerist, please don't assault us with rat heads, please let us make the choice.
because green beans grow out-of-doors and must be harvested by mechanical pickers close to the ground, it is not uncommon that field debris, insects and field pests may be present in the product when it is harvested and delivered to our plant for processing.
No kidding?? All I ask is that you pick these things out before you serve them to me.
Seriously, the rat heads should be pretty easy to spot.
Though I gotta say, those green beans DO NOT look appetizing even WITHOUT the rat head.
(And, just to beat the topic to death -- aside from the fact that a caterer uses Wal-Mart beans -- does the caterer not even take enough care to notice the rat head as they're dumping the can into the feeding trough? I would hope that the caterer at my wedding would be professional enough to fish out the rat heads before serving.)
This is all way to funny LOL LOL LOL
@Cliff_Donner: Though I gotta say, those green beans DO NOT look appetizing even WITHOUT the rat head.
They DO NOT look appetizing because the farmers grow them as big and 'woody' as possible, since they're paid by the pound. For this reason, more than the rat contnet, I avoid these types of canned goods like the plague.
Local farmers, though also go by the same adage that \"the bigger the bean, the bigger the coin,\" holds true, however, not nearly to the degree of these factory farms.
If you want your beans year round, buy them fresh, prepare them yourself and freeze them. They're healthier and have less pest problems.
Yes, I am particularly a fan of the fact that we clarified the rat's head was dead. :-)
There are really no words here to describe this company's abject failure to abide by their obligations. Their statement is defensive, not \"we're going to conduct a thorough investigation and get to the root of this problem.\" They tried to bribe the customer. Truth be told, if a rat's head ended up in the beans, chances are good the entire lot is contaminated, but there's no mention of recalling it, or investigating whether or not the factory is rat infested. This is a serious health issue.
Right now all I can imagine is subconciously chomping on a preserved \"live\" rat head.
Thankfully I haven't eaten in almost two days, so vomiting isnt an issue.
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Why is this caterer being supplies at Wal-Mart? If I hire a caterer, I expect high-quality food to be served. Wal-Mart is evil and serves only the trailer-park trash set. Waterboard Wal-Mart!
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Maybe someone said it and I didn't see it but...
Where is the rest of the rat?!
$500 would have shut me up.
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How much money do I have to pay to go to what program to my MBA so I can solve problems this way. The reason they offered $200 is because they dont care and actualy have disdain for thier customers.
DISDAIN
Walmart has disdain for thier suppliers so low quality is job 1.
As gross as it is, the beans are safe. They are sterilized before being canned, so there isn't any bacteria or anything on the rats head. They'd be safe to eat. Of course I would never eat them... i hate green beans :P.
Uh, I guarantee biting into a rat's head isn't safe, dentally speaking.
@DeadWriter: Your amount is as arbitrary as their amount. Why $1,500 vs $200? Why not $500,000? Or $1!
Let's be honest. No matter how much they offered, this would have been posted. It has all the qualifying things to rage out against
1) A company involving Walmart
There we go!
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It's full of heady goodness!
Imagine if that would have been discovered at some catered affair.
Around 20 years ago a friend of mine brought a case of Coca cola, it might have been longer because it was the bottles, the real glass bottles, don't remember how long ago I saw one of those. In any case a some unidentifiable object was found in a bottle he was opening. I can tell you only that it was once alive because it had hair. I told him to call them and tell them what you had found and I was a witness, plus take a a few pictures. Then write them and send the Polaroid Picture in the mail. Well the phone call was enough, after a few questions about where he lived and purchased the coke. Someone I guess from the legal dept got a hold of him a few days later and offered him 10,000 dollars and free coke for life, he grabbed it.
In retrospect years later we talk about it (every time I am with him and he shows some store clerk these silver coupons he gets every month for the free soda)and we know that they at Coca Cola knew something was probably wrong in the plant that bottled the soda in that area and offered him something hoping he was young and dumb(he was 19) and grabbed it, he was and he did. So this company Allen are a bunch of cheapskates. I guess they must of thought it was a Walmart employee instead of customer and would taken five bucks if offered to help supplement the pittance they get from them.
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Where went the $200
Growing beans in a lab? This sounds more like rats running around the canning plant getting caught in the equipment. I wonder why this hits Allens but not Green Giant? Because GG offers more hush money? Because they have better QC? Because GG sells more cans where a rat's head wouldn't fit?
a caterer using canned beans--ewww
a rat in canned beans--triple eww
Those beans are pretty disgusting looking even without the rat head. Maybe it's just the picture or the type of beans, but I don't think I've ever had anything that color that tastes good.
I'm sorry, I thought it was a restaraunt, I guess it was a can bought at wal-mart... that's what I get for not reading carefully
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@Dakine:
What are you worried about? The pee is cooked to the point of sterility anyway. You're making such a big deal about nothing! /sarcasm
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@Dakine: I agree he probably put it in there himself. Maybe a disgruntled employee? The equipment used to check these products is precise and impressive. Products are scanned and analyzed by half a dozen cameras attached to computers. A rat's head would certainly have stood out. Some products (not green beans) are even x-rayed to make sure nothing strange gets in. Its just a gross reminder of how dirty our world is. However, on the flip side... we pay good money to forget how dirty the world is! :-)
My only thought here is, where's the rest of the rodent?
Probably minced across dozen's of other cans; where no one will ever notice. I mean rat tail or bean stem who can tell the difference.
I understand that beans are a natural food, and that certain mechanical methods for harvesting must be used in order to keep prices competitive and firms to make a profit. But for something this large to make it past all the sorting machines that are designed to catch small rocks, twigs and even off color beans it nuts. Who's to say this rat from the field it could have just as well gotten crushed in the canning process.
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Reminds me of the grub I found in my pickle years and years ago... I mean, there is a limit to quality control - and though I'd love to imagine that the bar is above rat heads, they belong to the evil trinity of \"vermin that love our food.\" Right up there with cockroaches and ants. Anyone who thinks that they aren't getting protein when they eat their veggies, cereal, etc. is living in their happy place.
Whatever doesn't kill me or make me choke on my vomit - well, it might not make me stronger but at least it didn't kill me.
rofl - $100-$200?!!! I would, literally, lol at that offer.
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Oh mom, can I keep it?!