An unwelcome addition to her clamshell container of spinach has a Calgary woman rethinking her approach to prepackaged produce.
Hayley Huskinson says she purchased a sealed package of Dole's 'thoroughly washed' baby spinach from the No Frills store on Elbow Drive Southwest on Sunday evening and proceeded to use it in her morning smoothie and as part of her dinner on Monday
"Last night (Tuesday) I was making salad for my lunch today and put a handful of spinach in the container and noticed a brown thing in my leafy lettuce that wasn't leafy," Huskinson told CTV Calgary on Wednesday. "I saw the brown thing and wondered why there was something brown in my bright green spinach and poked through a little bit."
"It was a dead mouse."
Huskinson said she screamed, swore and "freaked out a little bit" after touching the dead rodent and realizing she had already consumed spinach from the package.
After photographing her disturbing find, Huskinson contacted Dole to notify them of the issue. She claims the Dole representative was not overly concerned to hear of the dead mouse.
"To me this seems pretty urgent. That is a rodent in someone's food." She says Dole informed her a resolution through the claims process could take a couple months.
Huskinson says the No Frills location has offered an in-person meeting with the manager and a refund, but she understands there is little they can do as the product was not packaged in a No Frills or No Name facility.
The ordeal has altered Huskinson's take on packaged produce. "I always naively thought that buying something prewashed was good enough. I'm definitely rethinking that now." She adds that it might take some time before she gives spinach another chance.
Dole, No Frills and Loblaws, the parent company of No Frills, have not responded to CTV's requests for comment.
