Her Kids Will Never Eat Green Beans Again After What Was Found In This Can

Christy Lee Parker

What was first thought to be a burnt bean in a can of vegetables turned out to be something that would give most people nightmares, and it’s safe to say one Utah woman might have trouble getting her kids to eat veggies ever again. It might not be quite enough to make you swear off green beans for good, but I guarantee, you’ll take a closer look before taking a bite next time.

The chain of events started with a can of Western Family green beans being prepared for dinner for a church youth function, but it ended a lot different than planned.

Troy Walker wasn’t expecting the startling discovery she was about to make, when she took a closer look at a bean that looked darker than the rest and realized it had eyes. When she saw it, she was left screaming. While that might seem like an overreaction at first, I think it’s safe to say, many would have done the same.

“It looked pretty much like a burnt bean,” she said. “And then as I got closer to lift it off the spoon, I saw eyes. … That’s when I just dropped it and screamed.”
To her horror, she realized that the “burnt bean” was actually a severed snake head.

(Photo Source: WTHR)

Seeing that she had the head but the rest of the body was missing, it raised concerns for Walker. “My biggest concern (was) that someone else would get the body,” she explained. That being said, she headed back to the grocery store where the purchase was made with the beans and the extra surprise in hand. The store graciously offered her a refund for the full purchase of about 30 cans of beans.

Next, she sent a photo of the decapitated head to the Western Family company, which immediately halted production and began investigating the incident, BizPac Review reports. Cans were also reported to be pulled from store shelves as a precaution.

“At this point, the product is on hold at the wholesale level,” said the company’s chief financial officer, Pete Craven. “As soon as we know something like this, we stop all shipments until we know what’s going on with the foreign material. Foreign matter is not something we take lightly. We want to know what it is, and we will immediately research and do any level of correction as we can.”

Luckily, Walker has a sense of humor about the entire ordeal, even though she says she was unable to eat for a little while. “I haven’t eaten much today because I still get a little queasy,” she said the day after the incident. “I could not eat last night. It was just terrible.”

Walker still planned to have family join her for dinner this weekend, but had to offer them a disclaimer to get them to accept the invitation. “I said, ‘I promise I am not going to serve green beans. We are not having green beans,’” she said. “Please answer.”

Although the snake was a big and disgusting surprise, Walker is pleased to see that the company took immediate steps to protect others from having the same happen to them.

While it’s highly unlikely any of us are going to find a severed head in our next can of food, this story does provide a valuable lesson, and it’s all in Walker’s actions. Admittedly, a decapitated snake head has to be one of the worst things you can find in your food. However, she handled the situation with grace, and her primary concern was protecting others, not making someone else pay.

Critters eat too, and inevitably, they will find their way into processed food from time to time. While we should expect manufacturers to follow proper protocols to prevent such an occurrence, nothing is fail proof. So, should you find yourself in such an unlucky spot, discovering an unwanted surprise, handle it like a mature adult. Kudos to Walker for reminding everyone how that’s done.