It’s not the way anyone wants to start their week.
But Los Angeles resident Jensen Karp says he was horrified when he went to pour himself a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal on Monday morning and found what appeared to be two shrimp tails in the bag.
Karp posted a photo of the shrimp tails on Twitter and while the company initially offered to replace the box (which Karp, who was still traumatized by the discovery, declined), the story took a turn after they issued a statement online saying the tails were likely “an accumulation of the cinnamon sugar that sometimes can occur when ingredients aren’t thoroughly blended.”
“We assure you that there’s no possibility of cross contamination with shrimp,” the company said.
The story quickly went viral, with Karp and other Twitter users naturally skeptical of that explanation.
Karp says he took a closer look at the bag and found black spots on many of the pieces of cereal, which many Twitter users said appeared to be some form of animal droppings.
Karp’s wife, the actress Danielle Fishel Karp who is known for playing Topanga on “Boy Meets World,” also found what looks like dental floss in the bag.
In an updated statement, the company says that it is investigating, but “we can say with confidence that this did not occur at our facility.”
Karp says that the most frustrating part of the experience has been his communications with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and General Mills.
“Their initial reaction to shellfish being in the bag was to tell me it was sugar. Not to investigate the issue or look into it. It’s a deadly allergy to many (and non-Kosher) and that didn’t seem to matter beyond offering me a new box,” he wrote. “I originally approached them thinking it would help out! Then, they said I’m mistaking sugar for a crustacean.”
He says after their initial response, he is reluctant to send the bag to the company as he no longer trusts them to properly investigate the matter.
In one email, a representative for General Mills suggested that he should instead, “please provide these items to your local law enforcement.”
The story has continued to attract attention on Twitter; so much so that a crustacean researcher at the National History Museum of LA has now offered to run a DNA test on the apparent shrimp tails in an effort to confirm whether they are actually shrimp and not, in fact, clumps of sugar. Another lab is testing samples of the cereal to identify the black spots.
Those tests are still ongoing, which means the mystery of the cinnamon toast shrimp tails continues.