Soup Anyone?

[riggins44]

Here is story about a local Cracker Barrel that a lady found a mouse in her soup. Not sure why she is upset...extra protein that wasn't charged for! :laugh:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-08772sy0may11,0,7769568.story?coll=dp-headlines-topnews

An unwelcome Mother's Day surprise

A woman is startled to find a mouse in her soup at Cracker Barrel. How it got there remains a mystery.

A woman enjoying an early Mother's Day lunch at a Newport News restaurant Saturday discovered a mouse in a bowl of vegetable soup.

Carla Patterson was eating with her two sons and her godson at the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant, on Jefferson Avenue across from the Patrick Henry Mall, when she scooped up a small, black mouse, about an inch and a half long, with her soup spoon.

Patterson, who already had eaten several mouthfuls before she came across the rodent, let out a scream.

"It was just shocking," said Patterson, of Hampton, who went outside while several restaurant staffers talked with her to calm her nerves. "Anybody would be shocked by it."

Several other patrons got up and left the restaurant in the middle of their meals. One patron who was in the restaurant at the time said about 20 other diners got up and left, while Cracker Barrel spokeswoman Julie Davis, at the company's headquarters in Lebanon, Tenn., near Nashville, said six customers left.

Cracker Barrel has ordered all of its 497 restaurants in the country to stop serving the vegetable soup while the matter is investigated.

"Obviously, the health and safety of our guests is our primary concern," Davis said. "We immediately stopped serving the soup, and isolated the product. We're investigating every possible cause for how this happened."

She said it's safe to eat at the restaurant. A Peninsula Health District inspector visited the restaurant Monday and found no evidence of rodent infestation.

An employee from a Virginia restaurant, Davis said, drove the mouse to Tennessee, where the rodent will be tested. Laboratory analysis, she said, will determine whether the mouse got into the soup in Newport News or came packaged with the soup delivery from a vendor.

The vegetable soup, which contains potatoes, tomatoes and other vegetables, is one of the few final products Cracker Barrel buys from an outside company rather than making it in-house, Davis said. The soup is delivered to the restaurant in bags, where it is mixed with water and cooked. But Davis declined to identify the name of the vendor pending the outcome of the investigation.

Patterson said she had planned to order the pot pie for her Mother's Day lunch, but when she discovered the restaurant wasn't serving it, she ordered the soup. She said the soup tasted fine, until she made the discovery. "I have to admit, it was good," said Patterson, who plans to hire a lawyer. She has not yet decided whether or not she would file a lawsuit against Cracker Barrel.

But she got sick when she went home, and checked into the hospital. She felt sick again Monday, and checked back into the hospital again. The doctors told her she is probably OK, and that her nerves from the incident could be causing her to feel sick.

Dr. Bill Berg, of the Hampton Health District, said mice carry several viruses and bacteria - both in their bodies and in their droppings and urine - that are not healthy for humans. That includes a respiratory virus that can cause pneumonia.

But as long as the mouse is well cooked, he said, it would be safe to eat. If the mouse were boiled at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, it would need to be cooked for about a minute to eliminate contamination. At 160 degrees, he said, the viruses and bacteria would be killed after five minutes.

But even if the threat of virus and bacteria were completely eliminated, he said, the body still might feel sick, but if the mouse is cooked adequately, it would only be a short-term sick feeling.

"That's not to say it's a pleasant experience," to eat a mouse, he said. "If it's well cooked, it's probably safe. But the aesthetics are a different matter."

The Newport News restaurant last got pest control service April 13, from a local company, and no signs of rodents were discovered at that time, Davis said. She added that for good measure, the restaurant got a good cleaning on Saturday.

Cracker Barrel's president, Donald M. Turner, has been heavily involved in monitoring the situation, Davis said, and managers kept in touch with Patterson over the weekend to check.

Patterson, who is vice president of athletics for Denbigh Youth Football and Cheerleading Association with the city's parks and recreation department, said she had no complaints about how she was treated.

"They were nice to me," she said. "I do want to know how it happened and where it came from, but I don't want to make it look like some big thing. I'm angry about what happened, but I'm not mad at management." n

[jbooma]

And I thought my mother's day dinner experience was bad :doh:

[codeorama]

I saw that in the paper today... LOL.

[riggins44]

Originally posted by codeorama

I saw that in the paper today... LOL.

Took the family to Outback Sunday night, everything was fine there. Glad didn't ride across the street to Cracker Barrel! :laugh:

Ask Michelle if they are going to add mice on the barbie to the menu!

[Montilar]

Hey Jen, did you or the hubby have the soup at cracker barrel the other night?

[jenmdixon]

Originally posted by Montilar

Hey Jen, did you or the hubby have the soup at cracker barrel the other night?

No sirree, Montilar. And never will now, thanks to this story

See what you missed? You could have had zoupe de rodent. How...tasty :drool:

[PCS]

Now that would be the chunky type soup correct? :doh:

[SKINtil8tin]

That's just nasty!