A Seattle woman said she was eating a salad she had purchased from Evergreens when she discovered a dead lizard in it. She was halfway through her meal before finding the tiny reptile, and to make it worse; it was missing an arm.
Listen to your favorite News/Talk station now on Audacy.
After finding the lizard, Maniza Qureshi filed a complaint with King County Public Health and the company. This has now prompted the county to send over a health inspector to investigate the restaurant.
The incident occurred on Wednesday at the South Lake Union location at Thomas Street and Boren Ave.
Related
Qureshi said to KIRO7 that she orders salads from the restaurant all the time but has never had something like this happen.
“This is like my favorite lunch spot,” Qureshi said to KIRO7.
However, while she was eating her salad on Wednesday, she realized something was not right.
“I’m like working, eating, and all of a sudden I’m picking up my fork, and I’m like woah – like that’s not part of a lettuce,” Qureshi said. “I’m just kind of turning it and that’s when I saw arms, and like, the little guts sticking out. And I kind of jumped out of my desk, called my coworkers, we’re all freaking out.”
Her immediate feelings after discovering what was in her meal were as expected.
“Shocking, horrible, terrifying, disgusting,” she said. “That’s when I was like, you know, gagging, puking. Could not believe there was a lizard in my salad.”
Washington State University’s Zoology department confirmed the lizard was a Western Fence lizard, KIRO7 reported.
Related
The worst part for Qureshi was that the whole lizard was not there.
“You can see part of the arm missing. That’s what freaked me out,” Qureshi said. “There wasn’t a tail. That’s what I was worried about – did I actually eat that, or maybe that was in other people’s salad,” she said.
The CEO of Evergreens, Ian Courtnage, said the company pays a premium to suppliers to ensure that the lettuce and greens are up to standard.
“We’re working with a national supplier that triple washes, cuts, and bags the greens so they’re ready to eat for us – specifically to avoid any issues,” Courtnage said over the phone.
After hearing about Qureshi’s incident, Courtnage said the supplier was contacted to see what went wrong.
“The quality of the product we serve and safety is paramount, which is why we have this system in place. And that’s why this extremely uncommon alleged incident is so frustrating to us and obviously, the consumer,” Courtnage said.
Related
Now, the supplier is going through its farm and delivery protocols, he said.
Bill Marler, a Seattle-based food safety attorney, told KIRO7 that finding creatures in food is pretty common.
“Snakes, mice, spiders, sometimes live things, sometimes not live things,” Marler said. “The positive thing is, even though these things are grotesque, most of the time they don’t cause human illness.”
Either way, Qureshi thinks that the employees serving her should have noticed.
“A big, blue lizard is not something that can be overlooked,” she said.