Mouse head found in canteen lunch boxes in China second time in a month

A mouse head was found in a lunch box meal in China on Tuesday, triggering a wider discussion about food safety in the country.

The incident, also the second such disturbing occurrence within a month, took place in the cafeteria of a traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Xiushan county, reported state media citing a statement from the market regulation bureau of the county in Chongqing municipality.

A video posted online showed the mouse head in a dish of moyuya, or duck stewed with konjac, a local specialty, according to China Daily.

It however, remains unclear how the rodent’s head landed in the lunch box, the bureau was quoted as saying by the outlet.

The hospital said its cafeteria catering is outsourced to a third-party provider through government bidding and had never encountered such an issue before, according to the report that cited local media.

It was the second time a mouse head had apparently found its way into a dish this month.

Earlier on this month, a similar controversy gripped the Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College in Nanchang in southeastern province of Jiangxi, after a student posted a video of "an object with teeth, eyes and nose" in his rice dish at a college cafeteria on 1 June, according to the South China Morning Post.

While the college officials claimed it to be a duck head, provincial investigative task force in Jiangxi on June 16  concluded that it was indeed the head of a rat, reported China Daily.

On social media, people expressed concerns over food security following the two incidents.

"From now on, cafeterias should install cameras and play surveillance video at the dining hall," said one user on China‘s Twitter-like site Weibo.

In 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation said 518,600 cases of food safety violations were investigated and dealt with nationwide.

Although food safety in China has improved in recent years, inspections by market regulators of products last year did find problems more common among agricultural products and in the catering industry, according to state media.

Additional reporting from Reuters