Surprises In Snacks

My first thought was, "That was nice of Doritos."

Followed quickly by my second thought, which was, "They have a PLAN for compensating people who find things in their chips?! UGH! What does that say about how often it happens? And what kind of 'foreign objects'...no, never mind, I don't want to know."

The scary thing is that some people would be delighted to eat a huge clump of cheese-flavoured seasoning. You see it as a food-processing anomoly but they see it as concentrated Dorito heaven.

I don't know anyone that would enjoy a big handful of tomato sprouts though :oP

I once nearly had the pleasure of consuming cigarette butts with my Pistacio nuts...

LOL, I agree with anonymous poster #1. I remember I've found several small clusters of yummy-smile-inducing-dorito thingy...
It's goooooood
And wow... great find (there's something very scary in little tomatoes growing inside another tomatoe... perhaps, the evolution of tomatoes?).

Very interesting!
It's apparently much more than it seems. You know for a fact that tomato seeds are covered by a jelly-like substance. This substance prevents the tomato seeds from sprouting in the tomato. One way that the seeds COULD sprout in the tomato is when the tomato is decaying. The decayed coat would allow the seeds to sprout. Another way is much more interesting. It means that that particular tomato lacks the coating on its seeds, whether by genetic mutation or something else.
Haha... I guess maybe I'm over-reacting. But still...

I went googling and found a webpage that confirms my suspicion: http://www.zetatalk.com/food/tfoox010.htm
Look at the 2nd post on that page. Hehe... sounds uncannily like your situation, except that yours wasn't intentional!

Many years ago, I found a greasy work glove (black grease!) in a bag of Lay's potato chips. If I recall correctly, the standerd remuneration was coupons back then, too.

FDA actually allows a certain percentage of "foregn matter" in food packages. I know for pistachios it's 0.25% (http://www.ams.usda.gov/standards/pistinsh.pdf table III). This percentage aplies to a lot of product, not individual package, which means that one package may contain the 0.25% of the whole lot :) Foregn matter by there definition includes anything, except for: glass, metal, and life insects!

Bone Apetit!

That's very interesting! One time, when I was very young, I was eating a bag of Cheetos in my back yard. Now, I was at the age when I loved collecting rocks of all different sorts, such as the ones you would buy at a museum gift shop. Well, I had one of my most favorite rocks with me while I was eating my Cheetos, and I was preoccupied with something (I was reading a book I think), and as I reached down to get another Cheeto, I accidentally grabbed the rock instead. I bit down as hard as I could, and chipped a tooth! I don't think I cried about it though, I just though it was funny. The rock survived.

What you said about the Doritos was a little disturbing. That would orobably taste really salty and sigusting, especially because it's not even real cheese. Chemicals, probably. I shed pity for your experience. Tear.

have you tried any of the tomato sprouts? there are a lot of tasty sprouts like broccoli, bean, spicy bean, and the ubiquitous alfalfa. perhaps tomato sprouts could be the new rage.

I believe your tomato was born pregnant, like Tribbles.

I noticed all of the sprouts are growing in the same direction (up?). At first I thought this would indicate perhaps a mutant tomato without the pigmentation of a normal tomato, allowing UV light to seep through and begin germination (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germination, and then photosynthesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis).

However, upon doing a little research, it would appear that the seeds underwent some kind of natural stratification (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratification_%28botany%29). This is where the hard coating of the seed was softened (or absent from growth) and moisture is allowed to the embryo. I am postulating that the tomato either mutant (again, but here without the hard seed covering), or that the tomato was subjected to a long period of cold, which broke down the layering, and then warmth again to begin the germanic cycle.

Well- that was interesting. I havn't looked at that kind of science since sometime around 4th grade. Thanks!

Robert Emperley
Ann Arbor, MI
Strasbourg, France

Tomato sprouts, like the sprouts of any nightshade, are poisonous in any decent sort of quantity. They should not be eaten, like, ever. I like the blog, so if you ever find another one of those, please don't eat it. kthxbye.

I, too, have found sprouted seeds in a tomato. It was a red tomato, and it was last fall (not too far from when yours was!). There were only 2 or 3 sprouted. I ate it anyway. I lived. So far. I just found your site, and am systematically reading all of it (and procrastinating doing some work). Keep it up!
-sw

Have you checked to see what Monsanto and GM are doing with food? It is scary.

A friend of mine found a needle in her tastycake. She pulled it out and we managed to convince her to continue eating. "What are the odds there will be two needles in one tastycake?" Of course there was another one and she too got free coupons as compensation.

Nice friends.

bull feathers.

go look up "poison control center" and ask them about tomato, tomato anything.

peppers, see same

potatoes, the green stuff under the skin of potatoes (solanine) comes from exposure to light. some folks are sensitive to it; most are not.

and just in the last few months, not one but TWO young and otherwise healthy females died from drinking water.

now, based on the science presented by the National Enquirer, how you gonna live without consuming water?

Another lady told me that she had this happen. Her tomatoes were stored at room temperature and in a green bag. I was wondering if it might have something to do with the green bag causing that coating on the seeds to break down. Just a thought. I'm curious as to how many had this happen to tomatoes that were stored in a green bag. Anybody ?

"green bags" - by many names - supposed to retard spoilage...

the primary mechanism is the absorption of ethylene gas. ethylene gas is what makes fruits ripen.

so,,,,,,, if the ethylene is made to not be effective, and you keep the fruit "unspoiled looking" for a few dozen weeks, lotta things can happen inside a tomato.

I am extremely amused at the folks who rave about keeping their fresh vegetables for weeks in "green bags."

now, keep in mind, these are often the same folks who will not use a nasty chemically coated Teflon pan because some mysterious unidentified compound they heard about on the 2 AM shopping channel where "they" said "it's bad for you."

but they have no problem with putting their food in direct contact with magic pixie dust (bat guano and ground minerals from caves in south america, somewhere, and not at a fair trade price either, I suspect, just to take care of the raving econo-loonies along with the ecolog-loonies....)

whatever "stuff" is on/in the green bags is not revealed/disclosed, nor does not last forever; it absorbs some amount of ethylene gas and then it's shot - throw it away. at the price of those bags / containers, some simple math will prove very instructive as to how many pounds of vegetables you can buy and throw away when the excess spoils vs the cost of keeping it forever (not) in a green bag.

I just bought a pack of Roma tomatoes from Costco (I think there were 8-12 in the pack). Every single one of them was either sprouting or in the early stages of sprouting. i have seen this once or twice before, but not in such large quantity. It's kind of weird. I am wondering about the comment the man from Ann Arbor made about cooling the tomatoes and then them rewarming. I am wondering if they might be chilled too much in the travel process and then warm up again too fast in the store where they are being sold? I mean, that seems to be the only scientific evidence that someone has given. Sure Monsanto and etc are doing wacky stuff, but surely this has to happen in nature for a species to reproduce and survive. So maybe it is more environmental than due to GMO's? Maybe certain varieties are more sensitive than others? Does anyone know anymore scientific evidence vs. hearsay?

Yeah - we've had another sprouter last month (here in Texas). That was a "normal" supermarket tomato (vs. the one in the original article that was an organically grown heirloom variety).

I read this link about viviparous mutants (http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/2010/04/viviparous-mutants-and-other-thing...tml) a while ago and hunted it down again for you after reading this post. Academic citations provided! Hope this satisfies some curiosity. Love the site!

I found a tiny little thigh bone with raw flesh, it was wet in my mouth and felt slimey so I scraped the the slimey bit off to see what it was and it was a little bone :shock:

I found a black raisin lookin object in my small Doritos bag. Hope it wasn't anything that will make me sick! :(

Well, yes, there is a plan in place to deal with seasoning accum.

There are also large-scale strategies to minimize it (about 4 people on any given shift are responsible for locating and removing seasoning accum. from the machinery) - but with 15,000,000 bags per week at our plant alone, a few are bound to get through.

It's kind of like winning the lottery.

very interesting . i am new here and want to learn more from you

Several weeks ago, I crunched down on a very similar looking lump in Old Dutch red and white chips and cracked a molar. Very painful and dental care to save the tooth expected to be at least $2000. I was also offered coupons.

I once found something insect like floating in my milk.