Tests Show Mouse Found in Can of Green Beans is Real

RAYTOWN, MO -- The FDA has confirmed that an object a Missouri woman found in a can of "Libby's" green beans is a cooked mouse.

"I screamed. I turned it over and it looked like two feet sticking up in the air," De Ann Smith said when the incident occurred in February.

"That shouldn't have been in my green beans."

It took repeated demands Smith and television station KSHB for access to a government inquiry into the contaminated beans.

When stay at home mom De Ann Smith complained to Libby's about the unexpected furry lump in her green beans, she says they were rude, even when she agreed to pack it up and send it to their labs for analysis.

"He was just rude," Smith recalled of a Libby's employee.

"The whole time, he didn't show any concern."

When KSHB called Libby's Director of Consumer Affairs for comment, he hung up on them twice.

An FDA report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act identifies the lump as a "headless and tail-less mouse that had been thermally processed," making the canned mouse, technically, safe to eat. "We haven't had another can of green beans since," Smith said.

"I don't think we ever will."

In an apology, Libby's mailed Smith coupons and checks for $150. In a nine-page report, the last sentence says that the issue has been satisfactorily resolved with the customer, but Smith says she is not satisfied.

The FDA report says Libby's acknowledged it is possible for "mice to be processed and packaged," but their system is designed to prevent it.

"They were saying that 'No, this was a random thing and we're not pulling anything off the shelf', so somewhere the head and the tail had to be in another can of green beans," Smith said.

The FDA says Libby's refused to comment when asked whether other mice had been found in other cans before.

Libby's is not issuing a voluntary recall and the FDA is not requiring a mandatory one.

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