This hair-raising footage shows a rat walking all over rice being sold at bulk in a supermarket.
It was filmed by an unnamed shopper at the Yonghui Superstores – a large market chain – in Chongqing, west-central China.
The video show the large rodent rushing over the stand packed with white rice, with its feet dipped in the food product as it appears to be searching for a way down.
The footage immediately spread all over social media.
Many netizens was apparently appalled by the discovery and claimed they would never shop at the Yonghui stores again.
Following the heavy criticism about poor hygiene, staff from the supermarket came out with a statement claiming all the contaminated rice has been discarded and the store disinfected.
Staff also promised to be more attentive to food safety issues in the future, Chinese media reported.
Meanwhile, other netizens seized the opportunity to make fun of the situation.
User ‘read’ said: “This is actually the new quality inspector hired by the supermarket.”
And user ‘underground’ wrote: “The rat is a customer, and also it came out to make a purchase. What’s the difference?”
A similar food safety incident was recently reported in a popular delicatessen in the Chinese city of Taiyuan.
Namely, it was an even larger rat found stepping over the fresh takeaway food by horrified customers at the Liuweizhai convenience store.
One unnamed witness managed to film the extremely concerning sight and quickly posted it on Douyin – China’s TikTok – supposedly to raise awareness of the issue.
In the video, the pesky rodent can be seen scurrying inside a closed food cabinet.
Company staff immediately responded after the release of the footage, claiming all the food has since been destroyed.
The local sanitary inspection office quickly followed up the company’s claims with a statement saying that the matter will be investigated in further detail.
