Dead bat found in bagged salad sold at Florida Walmart prompts investigation

CDC tests for rabies and regional recall follow discovery of deceased chiropteran in partially eaten packet of Fresh Express Organic Marketside Spring Mix 

Alan Yuhas

Sunday 9 April 2017 22.45 BST Last modified on Monday 10 April 2017 14.10 BST 

A dead bat found inside a bagged salad sold at a Florida Walmart has prompted a regional recall and an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has warned Americans not to eat salad from such packages.

Two people discovered the bat after they had already eaten some of the salad in a bag of Organic Marketside Spring Mix. They alerted authorities, who sent the bat to a CDC rabies lab. The animal’s decayed state prevented a definitive test of whether it had rabies. 

Transmission by eating an infected animal is “extremely uncommon”, the CDC said in a statement, but the two people were recommended for treatment out of an abundance of caution.

Neither Floridian showed any signs of rabies and both reported good health, the CDC said, adding that there have been no other “reports of bat material found in packaged salads”.

Experts with the Florida department of heath, the federal Food and Drug Administration and the CDC are all involved in an investigation into how the dead bat came to be packaged with the salad.

Fresh Express, the food company whose product contained the bat, issued a limited recall for salads sold in a clear container, with a best-used date of 14 April and the production code G089B19. 

The recalled salads were only sold at Walmart stores in the south-eastern US, and the CDC said that all the remaining salad packages from the relevant lot had been removed from store locations.

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Dead bird found in Tesco salad by Somerset family

A shopper said his family had found a dead bird in a prepared salad he bought at a supermarket and served for dinner.

Paul Streeter, from Weare, Somerset, said his girlfriend had been sick after the carcass was discovered in a baby leaf and rocket salad bought at Tesco's Burnham-on-Sea branch.

He said: "I couldn't believe my eyes. It was horrific. She was seconds away from eating it."

Tesco said it was conducting a "thorough investigation".

Read more and see video here ...

That's a bit too much crunch in my salad: Woman finds live giant Egyptian grasshopper in her bag of greens

A Sussex woman's lunch almost became a Bushtucker Trial this week when she discovered a live giant grasshopper in a salad bag.

The likes of Alison Hammond and Kayla Collins got close to some creepy critters during Sunday's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get me Out Of Here! but an unnamed Brighton woman had a bigger shock after picking up a healthy lunch from a branch of Tesco in Lewes.

The unnamed shopper was about to sit down for lunch on the East Sussex coast when she found the three-inch insect alive and well among her bag of leaves.

The insect had survived a trip from Egypt in the salad bag before it gave the woman a surprise at the dining table.


Showing admirable calm under pressure - especially as her appetite had been undoubtedly spoiled - the woman passed on the creature to the RSPCA, who received the animal on condition of anonymity for the shopper.

The grasshopper - which the National History Museum has verified as Egyptian - has since been re-homed it at nearby Drusillas Zoo, where it was received by spider and insect expert Angela Hale earlier this month.

'To discover a grasshopper in this way is incredibly unusual,' she admitted. 'Although it may give someone a bit of a shock, these insects are completely harmless.


'The grasshopper is in excellent health and settling into her new home, where we hope she will be very happy.'

Ms Hale was able to identify that the grasshopper had made it to the south coast having travelled all the way from Egypt thanks to its distinctive vertically striped eyes, which are particular to this breed of insect.


The 6.5cm insect is believed to be a fully developed female, with a length more common to the fairer sex of the species, and fully developed wing span and colouration.

Ms Hale also received confirmation from the National History Museum that the bug was an Egyptian giant grasshopper, after the London institution viewed pictures of the insect.

A Tesco spokesman said that incidents such as these were 'extremely rare' and offered his apologies to the customer in question.

'All of our products go through quite a lot of processes before it reaches the customer,' he added.

'Incidents like this are extremely rare although an unpleasant surprise is something that can happen on very, very rare occasions

By Daily Mail Reporter