These days, we have all kinds of control and regulations, and the FDA is to regulate food and drugs, but when one couple finds a frozen frog in their bag of frozen vegetables and contacts the FDA, then their grocer, they discover that the FDA has done nothing about the possible amphibian-contaminated vegetables.
The Hoffman’s Story: How They Discovered a Frozen Frog in their Veggies and Got Ignored by the FDA
One morning in mid-October, the couple, Tim and Marty Hoffman, were going about their business as usual. Marty was preparing a special breakfast for their dog, Zoey, who has special dietary needs due to allergies, which is where the frozen vegetables come in.
Tim, who was in the bathroom at the time, heard his wife scream bloody murder and raced to the scene only to discover – a burglar, an ax-wielding maniac? No, he discovered a tiny frozen frog in the bag of frozen vegetables.
He photographed the frog inside the bag for evidence and contacted the Food and Drug Administration office in Detroit with full details and pictures, and he was promised a full investigation into the matter; however, when a week had passed by and he had heard nothing about the investigation, he contacted a reporter who worked for the local newspaper, “Lansing State Journal”.
The story picks up with the Today Show contacting the reporter, John Schneider, who took it upon himself to dig up the story. He contacted the Meijer grocery store, the local grocer where the store-brand vegetables had been purchased about the incident only to discover that they had never been contacted by the FDA.
Meijer immediately contacted Tim and Marty, apologizing to them, and within the hour conducted their own store-wide investigation of all the products they had remaining in the story, which, thankfully, revealed no more frogs or other unwanted creatures in the veggies.
The FDA refused to comment when contacted by the Today Show, because they claimed that they couldn’t comment on an investigation that was on-going.
But Tim didn’t hesitate. “We’ll never open another bag of anything without looking at it first,” he said.
The Author’s Opinion
Yes, mistakes and accidents happen in every aspect of life, and that includes frozen vegetables and sometimes letting a frog slip in to the bag – somehow. But the larger point, the point that we should all care about, is the fact that the FDA did absolutely NOTHING. What kind of “administration” does such a thing as ignoring a report of a frozen frog inside a bag of vegetables?
This sort of lackadaisical attitude toward everything in society simply must stop, and when it comes to our food source, it simply must be thoroughly checked. People don’t all grow their own food for their entire family. They have no idea who produced, raised, grew, packaged, etc., their food, and it is the job of the FDA to make sure that Americans are receiving healthy and contaminant-free food sources.
What are they so busy doing that they can’t commence in an investigation or at least contact the grocery store in question in less than a week? The contact should be immediate. What if all of the products had been contaminated with some sort of disease? The entire area would have been at risk for an invisible affliction.
Thankfully, the Meijer grocery store, John Schneider, and the Hoffmans took the responsibilty onto their own shoulders to make sure their community was safe, because their governmental organizations were (should I say “as usual” here?) not doing their jobs.
Sources:
Frozen Frog Found in Frozen Vegetables
Toad-al Shock: Couple finds frog in frozen veggies
Personal Opinion
