Man Claims He Found Shrimp Tails In His Cereal—And It Gets Worse

As a kid, finding fun surprises in your cereal box is something to look forward to. But when you’re older, you stop expecting toys to pop up in the middle of breakfast, and realize that any “surprises” that get poured into your bowl probably aren’t going to be particularly appetizing.

Featured Video
Hide

Writer Jensen Karp took the internet by storm this week when he realized there was something peculiar and out of place in his Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Advertisement
Hide

“Ummmm @CTCSquares – why are there shrimp tails in my cereal?” Karp wrote.

Sure enough, what appear to be two shrimp tails spilled out onto the counter next to the regular squares of the cereal. 

Of course, it’s easy to be skeptical and wonder if they really came from the cereal or if Karp woke up on Monday and decided to create chaos. 

Advertisement
Hide

But a closer look suggests cinnamon sugar may well have been baked right onto these aquatic bits. 

It wasn’t long before Cinnamon Toast Crunch got involved.

But they suggested the shrimp tails were simply “an accumulation of the cinnamon sugar that sometimes can occur when ingredients aren’t thoroughly blended,” even though that’s pretty obviously not the case.

As a Chef, I can identify cooked shrimp.
These were baked under dry heat, then coated with cinnamon sugar while still hot causing the sugar to coat it, but not lose the crystaline structure as evidenced in this zoomed in picture. Your team is covering it’s collective butts pic.twitter.com/gmDg4sNSsW

— The Pillsbury E-Boi (@ApocalypseDust) March 23, 2021

Advertisement
Hide

Imagine a universe where I’m like, “Yuck. These are shrimp tails.” Then I re-examine them a few hours later and realize, “Nope. These are just accumulations of sugar.”

— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 22, 2021

If the potential shrimp tails had been the only thing found, it’s possible this whole thing could just be chalked up to an unsolvable freak occurrence.

Unfortunately, after doing some more digging, Karp discovered shrimp tails weren’t the only things out of place in his morning cereal.

More potential shrimp pieces, a piece of string, and little black pieces baked onto the squares also popped up in his investigation.

I was convinced to go back through the bag, since when I first noticed the shrimp tails, I freaked out and closed the box. Here’s all my findings, which also now includes a weird little string? pic.twitter.com/mRDUhqG3I8

— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 22, 2021

Advertisement
Hide

For real – someone tell me they aren’t like maggots or bugs. Is it shrimp adjacent? (also just found this weird cinnamon covered pea thing?)
I wish this was a joke. pic.twitter.com/7pCs0TJCpv

— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 22, 2021

A dominate theory emerged, connecting all these pieces of a disgusting puzzle together.

This makes the most sense and is simultaneously the most disgusting.

— Lacy Hornick (@lacanator) March 23, 2021

Advertisement
Hide

Karp also says the second bag in his family-sized pack of Cinnamon Toast Crunch appears to be taped up and contains a bit of dental floss that they can see.

While the company offered to send a replacement box and take possession of Karp’s cereal to supposedly do their own testing, he instead decided to get outside opinions.

AM UPDATE: I feel fine. I am going to get the black stuff tested today, and also going to talk to the Costco. Most importantly, nothing new from General Mills since they asked me to send them the shrimp tails that they had tried to convince me was sugar.

— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 23, 2021

I want to also explain this: I have NO idea how this stuff got in my cereal bags and neither does @CTCSquares. It definitely could’ve been contaminated in the Costco (though that doesn’t explain the squares with black stuff COOKED on it or the sugar coating on the shrimp)

— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 23, 2021

Advertisement
Hide

I originally approached them thinking it would help out! Then, they said I’m mistaking sugar for a crustacean. Anyway, I’m testing the DNA of a shrimp tail now. So, I hope everyone is happy.

— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 23, 2021

They also are paying for this to be done, which is helpful when a corporation is telling the internet I actually found wads of sugar. So basically, my shrimp got a scholarship.

— Jensen Karp (@JensenKarp) March 24, 2021

Advertisement
Hide

The whole thing is definitely some kind of nightmare scenario, and it’s both hard to stomach and nearly impossible to look away until we get more answers.

But at the end of the day, the fact that so much of this doesn’t quite make sense means that it fits kind of perfectly in 2021.

And we thought this year would be less weird than last year. Wild.

— Batmanda (@HarveyBar22) March 24, 2021

Share this article

*First Published: March 24, 2021, 5:55 am