A California mom was two Jolly Ranchers into a sugary snack this week, when she reached in for a third and found a rusty blade caked with multi-colored candy residue.
"I was like, 'There's a knife in my candy bag!'" Amy Hu of Santa Clara told KGO, ABC's San Francisco affiliate.
Hu said the bag of Jolly Rancher Crunch N' Chew candies was completely sealed when she bought it at a nearby Safeway grocery store. She contacted local police and the Hershey Company, which manufactures Jolly Rancher products, to let them know about her discovery.
Hershey issued a statement to KGO on Friday, emphasizing that food safety and its customers are a top priority.
"We were contacted by the customer yesterday regarding this incident and immediately began reviewing our processes related to our JOLLY RANCHER CRUNCH 'N CHEW Candy," the company wrote. "We have apologized to the customer and, while there was no injury, we take this situation seriously. We believe this is an isolated case and accidental in nature. We will be taking the needed actions to prevent this happening in the future."
ABCNews.com found a handful of Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations against Hershey within the last five years, but only one was deemed "serious." OSHA penalties against Hershey totaled under $1,000.
OSHA did, however, slap one of Hershey's contractors, Exel, Inc., with six "willful" violations, three other violations and almost $300,000 in fines, according to an OSHA press release. Exel intentionally failed to report 42 serious workplace injuries that required medical attention over the last four years, according to The New York Times.
Hu's package said the Crunch N' Chew candies were manufactured in Brazil, which falls outside OSHA's jurisdiction.
"They offered me three bags of candy replacement, and I was like, 'I don't want anything. I just want to know this isn't going to happen again,'" she said. "'I just want to know that kids are going to be safe.'"
Hu told KGO she has a 1-year-old daughter and a 1-month-old daughter.
"I breast feed, so eating something that was touching this dirty knife, I don't know what I just put in my body," she said. "I just want to make sure they're taking it seriously so children don't grab this and find a shank knife inside of it."
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