SHIZUOKA (TR) – A nationwide ramen chain revealed on Wednesday that a woman found a severed thumb in a dish served at an outlet in Shizuoka City, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Oct. 13).
At around noon on September 10, the woman found the end of a thumb with a nail attached inside a bowl of soup served to her son at a branch of Kourakuen in Shimizu Ward.
The woman subsequently submitted the thumb to a health care center in Shizuoka, which confirmed it as being from a person and measuring up to eight millimeters long and one centimeter wide.
According to the chain, which is based in Fukuoka Prefecture, and the health care center, the cause of the problem was a part-time female employee who mistakenly cut her right hand while using a machine to cut pork. The diced digit then entered the soup in error during the cooking process.
The health care center has instructed the company on ensuring that other foreign objects do not enter the cooking process and proper sterilization techniques. The female employee is not believed to be a carrier of an infectious disease.
The company issued a written apology to the health care center. “We will endeavor to ensure that this does not happen again,” a representative of the company is quoted.
