Mumbai News: Police File Charges After Human Thumb Found In Ice Cream Cone

Malad police has registered a case against officials related to Yummo Ice Creams after a city doctor found a severed human thumb in a cone.

Dr Brendan Ferrao, 26, a Malad resident, discovered the finger in his ice cream and approached the police on Wednesday.

The case was registered under Sections 272 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale), 273 (sale of noxious food or drink), and 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code on June 13. The FIR did not mention the names or number of officials under investigation.

Dr Ferrao ordered ice creams on an app on Wednesday. While eating a cone, he found a two-centimetre human thumb lodged in the dessert.

“After I finished half of the ice cream, a big hard piece came under my teeth. I thought it was a piece of chocolate. I removed it from my mouth and saw that it was a piece of a human body. Being a doctor, I recognised that it was human,” he said.

“I saw it properly and found a nail with fingerprints on the piece. It was a thumb. I promptly kept it on ice and preserved it to show it to the police. It might be negligence or murder, I do not know,” he added.

Senior Inspector Ravindra Adane said the police had seized the piece of flesh and sent it to the forensics department. “We are investigating where the ice cream was made, where it came from, and who is behind this incident,” he said.

In a statement to The Free Press Journal, Yummo said, “We received a customer complaint yesterday stating that a foreign object was found in one of our products ordered via a delivery partner. Product quality and safety are our highest priority. We were in the process of addressing the situation, meanwhile, the matter escalated, and an official Police complaint was filed by the customer. We are taking this incident very seriously. We have stopped manufacturing at this third-party manufacturing facility. We have isolated the said product at the facility, and our warehouses and are in the process of doing the same at the market level. We are a law-abiding company and shall fully cooperate and support the authorities to investigate the matter thoroughly.”

The ice cream’s price was Rs 30. The manufacturing date was May 11, 2024, and the expiry date was May 10, 2025.