Yahoo Finance Woolworths worker sparks debate over 'gross' viral TikTok video
A Woolworths employee was left gagging after sprinkling what she thought was cayenne pepper on her breakfast, but turned out to be something a little more lively.
The woman was mid-way through making scrambled eggs when she decided to shake some of the Coles brand spicy mix into her meal, she told viewers in a video shared on TikTok.
Alarm bells began ringing when bigger 'sesame seed-sized' clumps fell into the meal, prompting her to take a closer look.
"If you look closely, they are not sesame seeds, I'll show you," she said, before panning to a close-up of the contents inside the container.
"Let me tell you, I feel sick," she said.
Inside the small glass jar, dozens of tiny insects could be seen, crawling around on top of one another.
"I can literally smell the bugs," she said.
She wrote in text across part of the video that the product had expired in January this year, but was still taken aback by the unsettling state of the pepper jar.
"Basically, it doesn't matter when it expired, I should not have larvae and little bugs inside my cayenne pepper," she said.
"I have definitely used that since January, and I use it in my burrito bowls, and that means this whole time I've been eating larvae, that is so f***ed," she said.
Multiple viewers pointed out in comments to her video that it was possible a pest existed in her pantry and could have recently entered the spice container without her knowing.
"I think those are pantry bugs? Check your flours and breadcrumbs etc too if they aren’t in airtight containers. I had the same thing recently," one person said.
Several others thought it was unfair that she seemed to blame Coles, when the bugs could have spread from another item in her pantry.
"Girl this has absolutely nothing to do with Coles," one wrote, with another adding, "these are weevils most likely from your pantry".
After receiving hundreds of sceptical comments on the video, which was viewed more than 190,000 times, she added a comment claiming she didn't store her spices in the pantry.
"I store my spices separately away from my pantry lol. I make sure to seal them all correctly every time I use them and there isn’t any in my other spices," she claimed.
"However thanks for the info on weevils, I wasn’t aware and now I am. It’s still gross."
She also referenced the caption, "U will be hearing from my lawyer" that accompanied the video, and clarified that it was a joke and she had no intention of suing Coles.
Coles told Yahoo News Australia the woman could return the spice to a store for a replacement or exchange.
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