On March 22, writer and comedian Jensen Karp tweeted directly at the official Twitter account for Cinnamon Toast Crunch with a strange question: “Why are there shrimp tails in my cereal?” He accompanied the tweet with a picture of a bag of Cinnamon Toast Crunch half poured out with two mysterious items (allegedly shrimp tails) mixed in. He further added in his tweet that “this is not a bit” before contacting the official Twitter account for General Mills, the cereal’s manufacturer. “Alright, I’m looping in @GeneralMills because I’m genuinely nervous I will never eat (or sleep) again without answers,” he tweeted. In response to his tweet, Cinnamon Toast Crunch denied that what Karp found inside his box was actually shrimp tails. “After further investigation with our team that closely examined the image, it appears to be 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,” a representative for the company tweeted in response to Karp’s original tweet. Karp responded by providing two new close-up pictures of the mystery items. “Ok, well after further investigation with my eyes, these are cinnamon coated SHRIMP TAILS, you weirdos,” he tweeted back. “I wasn’t all that mad until you now tried to gaslight me?” And for more morning meals that could be risky, If You’re Eating This for Breakfast, the FDA Says Stop Immediately. In another follow-up tweet from Karp, he shared photos from an alleged direct message conversation with the official Cinnamon Toast Crunch Twitter, asking him to send in the items for further investigation. “Our quality team would like to get it sent in to us, so we can take a closer look. We’ll be sending a pre-paid, addressed envelope so you can send the pieces to us,” the company wrote, according to the screengrab of their conversation. Karp agreed to send some of the shrimp tails, but says he will keep one or two “as evidence” for himself. After finding the alleged shrimp tails and receiving back-and-forth communication from the cereal brand via Twitter, Karp tweeted out that he was “convinced to go back through the bag,” as he had originally panicked and closed the cereal box after his first findings. In this series of tweets, Karp included a picture with more mysterious items, including a white string, and another picture that shows black marks on some of the squares, which Karp said are “cooked” into the squares.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb According to Karp, he bought a family pack from the Woodland Hills Costco in California, which included two bags of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. In another tweet, he said his wife—who happens to be Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel—examined the other plastic bag, which appeared to be taped-up, and found what appeared to be dental floss. And for more news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. With the addition of the black-marked squares, some Twitter users said they believe Karp found signs of a mouse or rat contamination. “That black is rat dropping baked onto the squares. The shrimp and string are collections. It looks like something got into a bag of dry mix and nested,” one user said. Karp tweeted out that he had even called Poison Control to assess what actions he needed to take if he had eaten rat droppings, as he did eat a bowl of the cereal before allegedly finding all these items. He also fired back at those asking if the entire situation was real, once again claiming that the black items were “cooked onto the squares” he found. “There are black items COOKED ONTO the squares and tons of it at the bottom of the bag, in addition to shrimp tails and other SUGAR COATED junk. Also, it’s only ‘viral’ because of their insane response. I would’ve dropped it,” Karp tweeted. And for more typical signs of infestation, If Your House Smells Like This, You May Have a Bug Problem. “I feel fine,” Karp tweeted in a separate update March 23. “I am going to get the black stuff tested today, and also going to talk to the Costco. Most importantly, nothing new from General Mills since they asked me to send them the shrimp tails that they had tried to convince me was sugar.” In an email response to Best Life on March 23, Mike Siemienas, a spokesperson for General Mills, said that an investigation is still ongoing but that the incident did not occur at their manufacturing facility. “While we are still investigating this matter, we can say with confidence that this did not occur at our facility,” Siemienas said. “We are waiting for the consumer to send us the package to investigate further. Any consumers who notice their cereal box or bag has been tampered with, such as the clear tape that was found in this case, should contact us.” When reached about Karp’s alleged findings, a representative for Costco said “management has no comment at this time.” And for another item in your home that may not be safe to consume, check out If You Have This Bottled Water at Home, Stop Drinking It Now, FDA Says.
