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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Honey, garlic... grasshopper?

Surprise in canned beans angers mom

By: Alexandra Paul

Posted: 05/2/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

john woods / winnipeg free press Krystal Boyce-Gaudreau found part of a grasshopper in a can of Superstore No Name green beans. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

Sunday dinner is the one day a week Krystal Boyce-Gaudreau gets her family around a dinner table.

Honey garlic chicken and a stir fry with canned green beans were on the menu this past Sunday.

That is until Boyce-Gaudreau opened the 14-ounce No Name green beans, the one with the canary yellow label.

She lifted the lid to see a bright red, grasshopper staring at her, eyes open and antennae sticking up.

"I look inside the can, only to see this bright red 'thing' looking up at me. I fish it out of the can, with my finger, only to realize it is the top 1-1/2 inches of a grasshopper. Disgusting! I right away freak out, show my husband and three boys, and we are all completely disgusted by what we find," Boyce-Gaudreau told the Free Press.

She filed a complaint with the brand of bean's maker, President's Choice, but the response was disappointing, she said.

"Someone called back and she didn't seem all that shocked about the grasshopper," Boyce-Gaudreau said.

The Oakbank mother said she was told grasshoppers thrive in bean fields and while the processing plant has a "red eye" laser to spot stuff that doesn't belong, sometimes insects aren't picked out.

Grasshoppers live life as green as the beans they stalk, she was told, which apparently accounts for the fact they sometimes land on the factory floor.

Like shrimp or lobster, they turn red when the veggies are blanched for canning and they're usually spotted by the "red eye" on the conveyor belt, the mother said she was told.

Worse, said Boyce-Gaudreau, who works as a nurse, it's now a health concern.

The memorable can the Oakbank family opened Sunday only had the top half of one grasshopper.

That means there may be the bottom half chopped into another can of beans in the same batch.

And the bottom half keeps its hue of green, unlike the bright red colour that makes the top half stand out so it could have slipped past the "red eye," too, the mother said.

"My concern is someone got the bottom half in another can and maybe they ate it," she said.

She wanted the parent company of President's Choice, Loblaws, to issue a recall.

The Free Press called the company's head office and was told they hope to respond to the grasshopper incident Wednesday.

As for Boyce-Gaudreau, she said she's not buying no-name products anymore.

And she joked Loblaws should think about changing the wording on the label.

"Have it on the label, 'May contain grasshopper.' "

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 2, 2012 A6

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