Bryan Piper loves vegetables, but a little surprise in a can of peas may have changed his diet forever. Piper was eating a bowl of canned Kroger garden-variety sweet peas when he found something else from the garden. Half way through the bowl, he noticed an object that didn't look right. A frog, not much bigger than a pea, was looking back at him.

In a letter to Piper, Kroger apologized for the mistake. Actually, Kroger wasn't to blame. An independent cannery packed and sold the peas to Kroger, as they do for many other grocery outlets. A cannery spokesperson says this is not an isolated case, but it is rare. He says the company spends millions of dollars on equipment to avoid these kinds of problems.

Kroger officials say frogs sometimes roll themselves into a small ball when vegetables are harvested. This lets them pass through the filter and systems and color detectors. The only way to guarantee the absence of foreign matter is to do piece by piece screening, a process that would increase the cost of food dramatically. Kroger says that between the blanching process, sterilization at the plant, and cooking at home, the frog did not pose a health risk.

An FDA spokesperson says it is somewhat common for insects to get caught in canned foods, but not small animals. They plan to look into the situation.

If you have a problem with canned products, call the Wichita Health Department at 268-8531.