A customer at a Subway in Lincoln City, Oregon, nearly consumed a sandwich with a dead rodent in its spinach topping, but the county health department said it is not particularly concerned about other individuals who consumed the contaminated product becoming sick.
According to KGW-TV, Jay Armstead ordered a teriyaki chicken sandwich with spinach at the Subway location last Tuesday. When an employee spooned the last scoop of spinach from a container onto the sandwich, they noticed the dead rodent in the leaves.
"It was unfortunate I was the lucky recipient. It was wet and dead. His tail was curled up and you could see his two front teeth," Armstead recalled.
Armstead’s friend Matt Jones, who had accompanied him to the Subway located at 4648 US Highway 101, took a photo of the rodent and posted it to Facebook.
"It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s also the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. I laughed because I was like, there is no way this just happened," Jones said. According to his Facebook post, the manager of the Subway was "in shock" upon the discovery of the rodent.
Cheryl Connell, director of Lincoln County Health and Human Services, said that the health department was notified and "arrived promptly" to investigate the matter, examining the dead rodent, the vat containing the spinach, and the restaurant.
"The investigation determined that the rodent problem did not come from inside the facility," Connell said. "It was probably in a bag of the bagged spinach product, not from the facility itself. Everything was sanitized and cleaned properly afterwards."
The State Public Health Division ruled the situation out as a public health emergency and therefore will not notify other individuals who consumed the spinach.
"[Health inspectors] consulted with physicians and we followed their advice that, although it is not very appetizing, the risk of someone becoming sick due to eating lettuce with those particular circumstances were very low," Connell stated.
In a statement, the Subway franchise claimed that it had disposed of the products used to make Armstead’s sandwich as a precaution.
"As soon as the customer alerted the owner about what happened, they were immediately given a full refund and an investigation was launched. To be cautious, all of the products in the sandwich unit were disposed of and a thorough cleaning took place, in which the Health Department gave the restaurant a clean bill of health. There were no other complaints made," the restaurant said.