Beasties in the bread

At the risk of putting you off your breakfast (or lunch or dinner), I bring you today 2 parallel stories about finding animals baked into store-bought bread.

• Last month in Cape Town, South Africa, Yusuf Moses, 62, spotted something strange through the plastic wrapping the loaf of bread his daughter’s boyfriend brought home from the store. “I saw the [paws] of this black thing and realized it was actually a lizard baked into the bread....I was so [angry] because imagine if my pregnant daughter ate the bread? She would’ve gotten sick." Moses brought the story to the attention of the newspaper, and a reporter contacted Kwick Bake Bakery. The manager acknowledged the mistake and explained, “The lizard could have been in the flour before it was mixed....These things can happen and it is not impossible. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, so there is no point in getting upset.”
• In September of last year in Oxfordshire, England, Stephen Forse, 41, proceeded to make sandwiches for his kids. He had already used several slices of bread when he discovered the dead mouse embedded in the loaf (2nd image). In addition to paying a fine of £16,821 for failing to maintain acceptable standards in their south London factory, Premier Foods - baker of the Hovis Best of Both bread - apologized profusely. Said Dad, "I felt quite ill - and even worse when an environmental health officer said the tail was missing. I wondered if we'd eaten that earlier."

I make no attempt to do an animal-parts-found-in-food weird news round-up, which would go on for many pages. Instead, just the couple of stories because I found the photos (particularly the splayed gecko) compelling.