A Vistara passenger claims his vegetarian meal onboard included an unwanted animal product: a dead cockroach. But the airline claims it was just sautéed ginger.
Cockroach Or Ginger In Airline Meal? Airline And Passenger At Odds
Nikul Solanki posted two pictures, including a close-up, of his breakfast (idli sambar and upma) on his Air Vistara flight from Mumbai to Bangkok on August 31, 2022, Uk123. Idli sambar is a breakfast meal popular in South India which includes idli (soft steamed cakes) and sambar (lentil stew). Upma is a thick porridge from dry-roasted semolina or coarse rice flour.
Neither recipe calls for cockroaches…
But Solanki claims he found a cockroach in his meal and posted pictures to prove it.
Small cockroach in air Vistara meal pic.twitter.com/ebrIyszhvV
— NIKUL SOLANKI (@manikul008) October 14, 2022
Vistara quickly responded:
“Hello Nikul, all our meals are prepared keeping the highest standards of quality in mind. Please send us your flight details over DM so we can look into the matter and address it at the earliest. Thank you.”
Although details are scarce, it appears that Solanki held the meal and presented it to the Vistara team in Bangkok.
On October 15th, Vistara posted the following update on Twitter:
“Hello Nikul, we’d like to clear the air regarding the meal that was served to you on your flight with us dated 31 st Aug from Mumbai to Bangkok. The sample was sent to the laboratory and thoroughly tested. Based on the reports, we can confirm that no foreign object/insect was found in the particular meal sample. The object in question was evaluated under a microscope and was found to be a piece of sautéed ginger. We have already shared the above findings to your email addressed to us on 14th Sep. We at Vistara leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the highest standards of safety and services are upheld. -Team Vistara”
— Vistara (@airvistara) October 15, 2022
I’m not an expert in insects, but that doesn’t look ginger to me. However, I am also not convinced it is a cockroach. Perhaps another bug?
CONCLUSION
Solanki claims it was a cockroach in his airline breakfast while Vistara claims to have performed a laboratory test to determine it was just sautéed ginger.
Whatever the verdict, I’ve suddenly lost my appetite…
Hmm. Doesn’t look like ginger. And you’d think after microscopic investigation they could positively identify it. I shall call it an appetite suppressant.
For you to lose your appetite, that is saying something…
But yeah, it’s not a cockroach but is an insect.
Maybe a weevil. There is a black ginger but I think it’s more a health food supplement than a cooking ingredient.
Yeah, seriously. Matthew losing his appetite means eating one order of Eisbein and fries instead of two.
Sure a taste test would have confirmed what it was?
It doesn’t look like a cockroach to me and doesn’t look like sauted ginger either. I’d say some other insect for sure!
Was it planted to get a payout?Tangent
Always a possibility.
Didn’t he take a picture of it? Well ok then. That should answer your question.
Amazing, with all of the great smart phones with amazing cameras and the picture is worthy of UFO or Yeti spottings, not to mention Nessie. Since only one party did a detailed inspection of the object, I have to go with the airline on this one. How do you get photos so out of focus and why would anyone believe a fantastic story about them. Maybe Rorschach.
them?
Looks like a bug to me. Not a cockroach but something else. A sow bug? That’s my guess.