Some netizens in mainland China recently posted pictures and texts on social platforms saying that they ate a foreign object in Longda Meat’s starch-free square meat ham, which “looked like a mouse tail.” This attracted widespread attention. The WeChat public account “Longda Food” stated on March 3 regarding the “ham suspected of eating a rat tail.” According to the test results of an authoritative agency, it was ruled out that the “foreign matter” in the ham involved was a rat tail.
The video shows that half of an object that looks like a mouse tail is exposed in the Longda Meats starch-free square meat ham purchased by the female netizen.
She complained, “I’m so sick. I vomited all night and almost vomited out bile. It looked like a rat tail. Hygiene is worrying.” She also responded to the message, “There are hairs on this one” and “I thought it was at first. Insects” etc.
According to the ham outer packaging provided by the netizen, the ham manufacturer is Shandong Longda Food Co., Ltd., which is located in Yantai City, Shandong Province, and the production date is January 28, 2024.
The customer service staff of Shandong Longda Food Co., Ltd. responded to the incident at noon on the 29th and said that on the 29th, the company sent personnel to Qingdao to cooperate with the market supervision department to contact consumers in person, and jointly confirmed and sealed the ham involved for market supervision. The department will send it to an authoritative agency for inspection and appraisal.
According to the report, experts from the Shandong Provincial Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center and the Jinan Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Center identified the appearance of the “foreign object” in the ham involved. The “foreign object” was a hollow tube with no bone structure, and the outer diameter of the lumen was about 2.5mm. The inner diameter is about 1mm. The identification opinion is that it does not belong to an animal tail and is highly suspected to be an animal blood vessel. The Shandong Provincial Food and Drug Inspection Institute conducted the identification of rat-derived, chicken-derived, and pig-derived ingredients on the “foreign matter” of the ham involved. The test results showed that no rat ingredients were detected, chicken ingredients were detected, and pig-derived ingredients were detected.
