Cinnamon Toast Crunch Responds After Viral Pic Shows Shrimp Tails In Cereal

Cinnamon Toast Crunch and its parent company, General Mills, are receiving criticism after a viral post showed shrimp tails and rat droppings in the cereal.

Writer, comedian and podcast host Jensen Karp shared a photo of the cereal package on Monday (March 22) with what appeared to be shrimp tails.

“Ummmm why are there shrimp tails in my cereal? (This is not a bit),” Karp shared, tagging Cinnamon Toast Crunch's official Twitter account.

The brand responded with an apology and offered to replace the box, but Karp said, after exchanging several direct messages with the company, it denied shrimp tails could be in his cereal and instead claimed the strange addition was "an accumulation of the cinnamon sugar."

“After further investigation with our team that closely examined the image, it appears to be an accumulation of the cinnamon sugar that sometimes can occur when ingredients aren’t thoroughly blended. We assure you that there’s no possibility of cross contamination with shrimp,” @CTCSquares wrote.

“Ok... after further investigation with my eyes, these are cinnamon coated SHRIMP TAILS, you weirdos. I wasn’t all that mad until you now tried to gaslight me?” Karp responded with a closeup picture of the alleged tails.

Karp then shared several more tweets pointing out black spots on some cereal squares, which he said he hoped weren't "maggots or bugs," and several responses suggested the spots could be mouse or rat excrement and the items found inside were scavenged by a rodent in flour or other materials while packaging the cereal.

Karp said his wife, actress Danielle Fishel -- best known for playing Topanga Lawrence on 'Boy Meets World' -- went through a second bag in the family pack, which appeared to be "taped up" and also included dental floss.

Karp said he also reported the incident to a Costco store in California where he bought the cereal, as well as Poision Control as he had already eaten a bowl before noticing the shrimp tails and other items.

Several other comedians, including Seth Rogen and Paul F. Tompkins, responded to the viral incident on Monday night and Tuesday (March 23) morning.

“Hey I hate asking for help on here but I am asking you to be on the lookout for several shrimp tails that I seem to have misplaced. I haven’t been many places recently, just the car wash, the post office, cereal factory tour, an ATM visit, and a friend’s backyard. PLEASE HELP,” Tompkins wrote.

"Id cut my mouth off if I were you," Rogen wrote in response to one of Karp's tweets about the incident.

Karp, whose writing credits include the television show 'Drop the Mic,' 'The Masked Singer,' and Sacha Baron Cohen's 'Who is America,' revealed he would discuss the incident further during an appearance on TMZ Live Tuesday.

Photo: Getty Images