A woman told how shocked she was when she found a dead rat in a loaf of bread, but only after she had eaten half of it.
On her way home from work, Nombulelo Mkumla bought a whole wheat brown bread at a local store in South Africa.
Only halfway through did she spot what looked like a dead rat among the slices.
A cross-section of the rat remained, with the intestines and dirty black fur visible. It appeared that the rat had been split into pieces during the cutting process.
Nombulelo shared her shock online, telling of her horrific discovery and wondering how the rodent could have ended up in the food during production.
What looked like a rat was found, still covered in hair, in slices of bread
Nombulelo Mkumla collected the bread from a local shop in Durban, South Africa
Nombulelo was halfway there when she made the gruesome discovery
In the clip shared online, she opens two slits, revealing pieces of the rat on each side, as well as the animal’s hair, intestines and tail.
She said: ‘I took the bread out of the fridge to make toast and saw something disgusting and scary.
‘I took a picture and sent it to my friends, and one of them said, “FYI, that’s a rat.”
‘I denied it and suggested that it might be something else, but the rat scenario made sense: it’s possible that the rat got into the bread in the factory and no one noticed.’
Nombulelo from Durban, South Africa, discovered the rodent on August 31.
She claims she returned to the store to raise the issue and was asked to file a complaint directly with the supplier, PepsiCo.
She emailed the brand with her video and images of the bread.
Nombulelo claims she was later contacted by phone by a PepsiCo representative.
She told local news: “This experience is traumatic and horrifying.”
PepsiCo South Africa’s Cornel Vermeulen said they are aware of the “isolated incident” as reported by IOL.
They added that the SASKO Low GI Seeded Whole Wheat brown bread did not meet the company’s “strict standards.”
Vermuelen has also assured customers that an investigation has been launched and samples have been taken from the batch in question.
The company also says it has been in contact with Nombulelo.
MailOnline has contacted PepsiCo South Africa for comment.
Disturbing footage shows fur and skin embedded in slices of brown bread
“I took a picture and sent it to my friends, and one of them said, ‘FYI, that’s a rat,’” she said.
However, this is not the first time that someone has reported finding a rat in their food.
A Brisbane, Australia, entrepreneur who wished to remain anonymous, recounted in February the moment he realized he was eating a rat in a wrap he purchased from a popular bakery.
The man bought a wrap with ham and salad at Beefy’s, Aussie World, in Palmview at the end of January as a tasty snack for his return journey home.
He said the wrap looked “normal” because from the top he could only see lettuce, carrot and ham.
To his horror, the Australian only realised he had made a mistake after he had bitten the rat.
“I was chewing and chewing and chewing but I couldn’t get the morsel I had bitten off the wrapper,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
He first thought the chewy texture was a bit like ‘ham gristle or a bit of fat’, but soon realised there was a dead rat inside.
‘I kept chewing it for a while and thought something was wrong. I pulled it out of my mouth.’
“I looked up and thought to myself, ‘That can’t be what I think it is.’ I kept going, but when I looked back down I saw a chaser and I took him on,” he said.
“I gag when I think about it. It’s just so disgusting. I actually bit the rat’s body.”
The shopkeeper immediately stopped, rolled down his window and spat everything he could out of his mouth, while gagging and vomiting.
He said that when he went back to the restaurant to complain discreetly, without drawing attention to the mistake, the staff shouted.
‘They all ran into the back room and I think two of them stayed… They were terrified.’
Once the traitor was out of the bag, the guests ran away.
The trader told Daily Mail Australia he took a large bite of the wrap and initially thought it was a ‘chewy’ piece of ham cartilage, before making the horrifying discovery that it was in fact a rat
The trader from Birsbane found a dead rat in a lettuce and ham wrap he bought from Beefy’s Pies at Aussie World in Palmview
‘By then the whole store was empty. People eating inside looked at me in disbelief.’
After the incident, he received a call from a Beefy’s general manager, who apologized on behalf of the franchise and promised to keep him updated. He said the rat would be tested for possible toxins.
But since that traumatic afternoon, he said, he can no longer enjoy a meal without thinking about the rat in his cloth.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Beefy’s for comment.