What did I eat and what do I do about it?

July 15, 2013 5:52 PM

I just had a bite of a popsicle that tasted like saltwater and/or salty chemicals. The bite reached the back of my throat and then I spit it out and rinsed/gargled my mouth with lots of water. I can still taste salty-chemical-somethingness at the back of my throat. Now what?

Any idea what might have been in there (something from the popsicle-making process?) and if it might be dangerous? I feel totally fine, but should I call poison control or something? Drink lots of water? Make myself barf? (These all seem extreme to me since I feel fine, I'm just not sure since this was so bizarre.)

And what about telling the company? These popsicles were made by Foodhold USA for Stop & Shop supermarkets, but I can't find any contact information on the box or online. I would just want to give them the lot number in case it would help them pull any bad product. So no one else has to know what a seawater pop tastes like or question being poisoned by frozen novelties.

posted by dayintoday to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Call poison control. They are happy to help. Don't talk yourself out of it because it seems trivial -- I promise you they have taken more trivial calls, many of them from me.
posted by KathrynT at 6:00 PM on July 15, 2013 [3 favorites]

My gut reaction is that you'll be fine. I've eaten some weirdo stuff before and had nasty food surprises like the one you just had. If you didn't swallow it or eat the whole thing I think there's little chance you've been poisoned.

But, KathrynT says it's no big deal to contact poison control. If that seems easy enough to you, go for it and have some peace of mind.
posted by RingerChopChop at 6:14 PM on July 15, 2013

Contact info for Foodhold according to NIH:

Manufacturer: Foodhold USA, Inc.
Royal Ahold
Address: 8301 Professional Place
City: Landover
State: MD
Zip Code: 20785
Telephone Number: 301-341-4100
Toll Free Number: 888-469-4268
Date Info Verified: 2007-02-07

You can also call the Stop & Shop headquarters. They should be able to give you more precise contact info for the right contact at Foodhold.

Please save everything you have surrounding this incident. If there is anything left of the pop that you ate, save that too. The manufacturer may want it for testing.
posted by Talk To Me Goose at 6:22 PM on July 15, 2013

I once had a similar situation and the manufacturer told me it was harmless brine used to clean food processing equipment that hadn't been fully removed from the equipment as it should have been. Maybe your situation was the same.
posted by Dansaman at 2:32 AM on July 16, 2013