Rat head found in shrimp crackers

A South Korean food company has issued a public apology after a suspected rat's head was found in a bag of shrimp crackers.

The nation's largest snack maker, Nongshim, made a public apology yesterday for one of its best-selling items containing the head of a small rodent. The company shut down the snack production line, and supermarkets are already removing them from their shelves.



The apology came after grey skin-like material, 1.6 centimeters in length, was found last month inside a jumbo-sized Nongshim snack, ``Saewookkang'' (shrimp snack). The Food and Drug Administration on Monday issued a correctional order to the snack manufacturer.

The "material" was very hard and covered in oil and burnt hair, and it also had the remains of eyes and a nose, which led the administration to conclude it to be the head of a rat.



A customer had reportedly called Nongshim asking for a refund and a recall on all of its product made on that day. Initially her requests were denied. However, later the company tried to compensate her and recalled all the products in the market, she said.

The company explained that a factory in China makes the dough and sends it to a factory in Busan to fry, pack and distribute it. "I doubt the frying process in Busan is unhygienic, but we are looking into the possibility of the material being added during the dough process at our factory in China," a Nongshim spokesman said during the public apology.