MONUMENT, Colo.-
A dead mouse that a student found inside a bag of barbecue potato chips he bought in the lunch line likely chewed its way into the bag after the chips were delivered to the school, a Frito-Lay spokeswoman said Monday.
An eighth-grader at Lewis-Palmer Middle School found the mouse Wednesday. School officials said at the time his claim appeared credible.
The bag and the mouse were sent to Frito-Lay headquarters in Plano, Texas, where employees found a “chew hole” they believe the mouse made to get into the bag, company spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez said.
An independent veterinary pathologist concluded the mouse had been dead from one to three days before the student found it, Gonzalez said. The bag had been delivered to the school six days earlier from a distribution center in Colorado Springs, about 20 miles away, she said.
“It seems most likely that it would have been at the school” that the mouse got into the bag, she said.
Spokeswoman Donna Wood said in a written statement that the school district has been working closely with Frito Lay and the El Paso County Health Department. She said a report available on the health department’s Web site shows that the middle school’s food service is in full compliance with all rules and regulations.
The school district has not released the name of the student who found the mouse. The district temporarily pulled all chips from its vending machines and lunch lines after the discovery.
Wood said the school district will offer Frito Lay products again April 2, the first day after spring break
Frito-Lay is a unit of PepsiCo Inc.
————
On the Net:
