The Cinnamon Toast Crunch shrimp tail saga has taken yet another strange twist.
The wife of the man who made a host of unsavory discoveries in the sugary breakfast cereal is none other than former Maxim cover model Danielle Fishel Karp, the Boy Meets World actress who played Topanga in the hit 1990s sitcom.
“Ummmm @CTCSquares – why are there shrimp tails in my cereal? (This is not a bit),” her husband, comedian Jensen Karp, tweeted initially.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch’s official Twitter account was tagged alongside a photo of what appear to be sugar-coated shrimp tails and string found in the bag. In a follow-up tweet, Jensen tagged General Mills, the cereal’s producer.
We’re sorry to see what you found! We would like to report this to our quality team and replace the box. Can you please send us a DM to collect more details? Thanks!
— Cinnamon Toast Crunch (@CTCSquares) March 22, 2021
“We’re sorry to see what you found! We would like to report this to our quality team and replace the box. Can you please send us a DM to collect more details? Thanks!” Cinnamon Toast Crunch wrote back.
A the New York Post notes, the Cinnamon Toast Crunch social media runner then took a major misstep in telling Jensen that a “further investigation” found that the foreign ingredients weren’t shrimp tails, but “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.”
"Accumulation of sugar particles." I am truly at a loss for words. https://t.co/TtIyEYplNe
— Danielle Fishel Karp (@daniellefishel) March 22, 2021
“‘Accumulation of sugar particles,'” Danielle tweeted. “I am truly at a loss for words.”
Also incredulous, Jensen fired back, alleging that they were indeed “cinnamon coated shrimp tails.”
“She’s honestly mad,” Karp told The Post of Danielle’s take on the situation. “She is really disappointed in General Mills’ statement and hoped to see more concern, rather than just tell me it was actually sugar, not shrimp tails (which is insane). People are allergic (I am luckily not) and their main focus should be finding out how it happened to help anyone who could also run into this.”
https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374476907887030274
Even worse, Jensen added, “Before I had the shrimp tail plop in the bowl – I had eaten a bowl. This is a bummer.”
He also (allegedly) found other disgusting items after further exploration, including string and cereal pieces containing unidentifiable black marks. The second bag in the CT Crunch family pack, which was clumsily taped back together, appeared to contain dental floss.
https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374187045279518720
“I am going to get the black stuff tested today,” Jensen continued on Twitter. “Most importantly, nothing new from General Mills since they asked me to send them the shrimp tails that they had tried to convince me was sugar.”
Jensen then shared an apparent series of direct messages between he and the Cinnamon Toast Crunch account, in which the brand asked for him to FedEx the food in question. He declined.
“Calling it sugar was super weird and the fact that you haven’t said anything to the contrary doesn’t allow me to trust you with it at all,” his reply read.
https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374558622684880901
Jensen’s most recent update reads, “I am happy to report: a Carcinologist (crustacean researcher) that works at NHMLA is going to morphologically identify the shrimp using microscopy and he will work with a team of researchers to use DNA to try and identify the putative shrimp down to species.”
“They also are paying for this to be done, which is helpful when a corporation is telling the internet I actually found wads of sugar. So basically, my shrimp got a scholarship.”