We've all experienced that moment when you find a hair--or God forbid, something worse--in our food. But what a Florida TikToker found in her Cheesecake Factory mashed potatoes takes things to a whole new horrifying level.
If you are in any way squeamish, this is NOT the story for you.
A TikToker named Bethany got all the way to the end of her takeout meal to find what she thought might be a frog--as in, a jumping, ribbiting frog--and the videos she's made documenting the situation are a downright nightmare.
The first video Bethany posted shows the moment when she got to the end of her Cheesecake Factory mashed potatoes and found a huge, rubbery lump in the bottom of the container.
She poked it with her fork, trying to break it apart, but that proved futile because it was, as she described it, "indestructible."
She then rinsed it off in the sink to get a better look, and as she put it:
"I deada** think this is a baby frog."
If you're not entirely skeeved out yet, don't worry it gets worse. Unable to figure out what in God's name was in her food on her own, Bethany enlisted the help of some professors at the University of Florida, where she is a student.
What a scientist found didn't seem to be frog but rather a giant lump of black mold--you know, the stuff that grows in flood-damaged buildings and can, like, kill you? Not a great thing to have in your food!
Anyway, the scientist Bethany spoke with couldn't confirm whether it was black mold, pending additional testing. But there's been a new chapter in this saga that seems to bear out the black mold theory.
Bethany is experiencing symptoms, like a sore and extremely inflamed throat, that are consistent with having ingested black mold.
Naturally, people on TikTok are freaking out about this story.
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@g.oldenslumber.s/TikTok
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In a statement to the Daily Dot, Cheesecake Factory said it had been in touch with Bethany and it was "very concerned to hear of this incident." Seems likely there will be several more chapters to this saga before it's over.
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