Heinz ketchup (Credit: Heinz.com - official company website)

Brazilian health officials have banned the distribution and sale of Heinz ketchup made from Mexico because it was contaminated with rat fur. The rodent fur was discovered as health officials conducted testing on Heinz products.

On Aug. 20, the National Health Monitoring Agency ANVISA of Brazil has issued a statement that the contaminated product was taken off the market. The Heinz Company was contacted for comment and only said management will conduct an investigation.

Heinz senior vice president of corporate and government affairs Michael Mullen said that the company has the highest regard for food safety and quality. Heinz said the company will cooperate with Brazilian officials to get to the bottom of this matter.

Cofepris, a hygiene agency in Mexico, has ordered an inspection inside the Mexican factory where the contaminated Heinz ketchup came from. A consumer advocacy group in Brazil known as Procon sent a letter to Heinz to urge the company to provide more details about the incident and how the rat fur happened to be inside the ketchup.

Procon said that aside from additional details, Heinz must also let the public know about the potential health risks and the steps it would take to address the issue.

People have lost their appetites when finding animal parts and live insects in their food. Not only is it gross but the contamination could prove to be a health risk. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration allows a safe level of bugs or bug parts in food. The FDA said food that is grown and harvested would be more than likely to contain some traces of bugs and these are known as unavoidable defects.

Snake baked inside bread loaf (Credit: Reuters)

In April 2013, a shopper found a tongue-eating louse inside a fish that he bought at a supermarket while a Reddit contributor found a snake baked inside a loaf of bread.

Dead frog found inside bag of spinach greens (Credit: Sarah Moss - owner of spinach greens)

Sarah Moss, a shopper in London, was surprised to discover a dead frog inside a bag of spinach greens that she bought at Tesco. The supermarket chain initially refused to refund Ms Moss but ended up giving her a gift voucher instead.