Comedian Jensen Karp was reportedly surprised Monday when he went to pour himself a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and found an unusual object in his bowl.
As the 41-year-old from Los Angeles began to fill a second bowl of cereal, he noticed that “something plopped out of the box,” and he “picked it up,” to investigate and found that the unusual object was a “shrimp tail,” Karp claimed in an interview, according to The New York Times.
Karp explained that after he had reached out to General Mills, the company that makes the cereal, and detailed the situation to them, he posted photos of the objects on his Twitter.
Ummmm @CTCSquares – why are there shrimp tails in my cereal? (This is not a bit) pic.twitter.com/tTjiAdrnVp
— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 22, 2021
“Privately, they were still being very nice,” Karp said, adding that the company had offered to send him another box.
“After further investigation with our team that closely examined the image, it appears to be an accumulation of the cinnamon sugar that sometimes can occur when ingredients aren’t thoroughly blended,” the company wrote in a statement on Twitter. “We assure you that there’s no possibility of cross contamination with shrimp.” (RELATED: General Mills Releasing Limited-Edition ‘Elf’ Themed Cereal For The Holidays)
Following this statement from the company, Karp was convinced to go back and inspect the contents of the cereal bag.
I was convinced to go back through the bag, since when I first noticed the shrimp tails, I freaked out and closed the box. Here’s all my findings, which also now includes a weird little string? pic.twitter.com/mRDUhqG3I8
— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 22, 2021
When Karp went back through the contents of the bag he found “shrimp skins-looking things,” in addition to “a small string,” according to NYT. Karp also focused in on a “small black piece,” which was reportedly on several of the cinnamon toast squares.
On Tuesday, Karp wrote on Twitter that he was going to try to get the black piece on the squares investigated, fearing that it could possibly be rat feces.
“All you have to do is say, ‘This is such a bummer, we’re going to look into it. We’re going to recall the ones from your Costco.’ Like, it’s such an easy PR thing to do,” Karp said according to NYT. “But instead, they wanted to basically gaslight me.”
“I just want you to fix it, you know, for other people,” Karp added, noting that the problem could be more serious for people with allergies to shellfish or keep kosher.
In 2011, General Mills sued a Michigan blueberry packager after the company found that the blueberries had been contaminated by shrimp.