Atlanta woman finds ‘mammal bone’ in blue M&M

For years, stories have circulated about the outrageous demands rock stars – even Celine Dion – make for their backstage accommodations as part of concert contracts or riders.

Most famously, Van Halen included in the rider for its 1982 world tour that absolutely no brown M&Ms be found backstage (the band insists this was not rock star excess, but an easy way to check if concert promoters completely read the riders and paid attention to important things like the stage and lighting).

The satirical rockumentary  Spinal Tap contains a scene where Nigel complains about the backstage food and the little pieces of bread (below). They also insist on blue M&Ms only.

Fox News is reporting that an Atlanta woman took a bite of a blue peanut M&M and discovered what a local biologist says is a vertebra from a small mammal.

Potts is not currently pursuing a lawsuit against Mars, the global giant that owns M&Ms, but the issue kept gnawing at her, so on Tuesday she said she took the object to Professor Larry Blumer, director of environmental studies in the biology department of Morehouse College in Atlanta, for an examination.

"It’s definitely bone, and it came from some type of mammal," Blumer told FOXNews.com. "This isn’t [a] tail vertebra — it’s something higher up, and the reason I’m certain for that is because it’s hollow. The nerve cord would run through there."

On Wednesday upon learning of the incident, Mars issued a statement noting that food and product quality is of "paramount importance to Mars."
  

E. coli O157:H7 deadly again

14-year-old Kayla Boner of Monroe, Iowa, died last week from E. coli and kidney failure.

Boner’s parents, Rick and Dana Boner, told KCCI that when their daughter first got sick, they thought she had the flu.  But after two days, she wasn’t getting any better

Dana and Rick Boner say it’s hard to move forward without knowing what caused their daughter’s infection.  They can’t help but wonder about recent frozen pizza recalls because of E. Coli contamination.

"They have taken some of our Totino’s pizza rolls to test at the labs," Dana Boner said.  "She had pizzas but there’s none left so there’s nothing to test."

Deaths are a sobering reminder that food safety is not simple. Our condolences to the family.