Woman suffers 'internal bleeding' after eating 'glass in vegan pasta'
An Adelaide woman claims she suffered internal bleeding after swallowing a sharp object which she believes was a piece of glass while eating pre-cooked vegan pasta she bought from her local Woolworths supermarket.
Sarah Crawley, 21, was eating dinner at home on December 30 with her partner when she bit down and heard a loud crunch.
She was eating a bowl of I Pastai vegan ravioli and initially thought she bit down on a seed or peppercorn until she realised the sharp edge of the foreign object had cut her mouth.
It was only a small nick, so Ms Crawley spat the piece out and did not think much of it until she began suffering excruciating abdominal pain two days later and had to be hospitalised.
At Flinders Hospital on the evening of January 1, doctors told Ms Crawley she was suffering internal bleeding from suspected glass ingestion.
“The pain was so intense, they put me on oxycodone,” she told News.com.au.
“My stools were black, which the nurses said was because of internal bleeding. It was pretty s**t. It definitely isn’t how I wanted to start my New Year.”
Ms Crawley said she tried to contact the company I Pastai from her hospital bed to report the issue, but it took a representative several days to return her call.
“He straight up denied it was glass, or that it was his product that had done this to me,” she said.
While she was recovering, her partner Ryan Abblitt emailed the company a photo of the pasta packaging and the piece of glass with “ravioli clearly baked into it.”
Company owner Luca Galaverna reportedly responded to the couple’s email saying it would be “impossible” to find glass in the product.
Mr Abblitt posted about his partner’s experience on Facebook warning others about the dangerous discovery, and was alarmed others responded with claims they found what they believed to be glass in their I Pastai products.
The thread caught the attention of Mr Galaverna, who commented that Mr Abblitt’s claims were false.
He suggested it could have been a piece of a plastic tray that broke away during the manufacturing process, as the company does not use any glass equipment.
“Please be aware that what Ryan is mentioning is a wrong statement,” he responded to the thread.
“What Ryan might have found in the packet of pasta is a small thin shred of the tray where we pack our products.”
Ms Crawley responded to the thread posting a picture of the foreign matter, saying: “Looks and feels like glass to me. Especially when it went through my body.”
The couple said they reported the incident to Woolworths where they bought the ravioli, and a representative helped them lodge an incident report and gave them a voucher.
“At Woolworths, we take food safety and quality very seriously,” the supermarket said in a statement to Yahoo7.
“While this matter appears to be an isolated incident, we have commenced an investigation with our supplier in line with established procedures.
“We continually work hard with all suppliers to ensure the products supplied meet the food safety and quality standards Woolworths and our customers expect.”
Yahoo7 News has contacted i Pastai for comment.
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