Mountlake Terrace woman reports razor in muffin

A Mountlake Terrace woman Thursday said she found a razor blade baked into a muffin she'd purchased earlier in the week at a local QFC store.

Jill Hutchison, 48, said she was breaking apart the muffin for breakfast Thursday morning when she found a hard lump that wouldn't crumble.

She extracted the razor blade, which appeared to have been baked into the dough, she said.

Hutchison filed a report with the Mountlake Terrace police Thursday night and turned the original four-pack of almond-poppyseed muffins and the razor blade over to the Cedar Plaza QFC store at 22803 44th Ave W. in Mountlake Terrace.

"I want to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Hutchison.

Craig Mitchell, merchandise manager for the Mountlake Terrace store, said he'd alerted the company's quality-control officer. He said the muffins aren't baked on the premises, so he's not sure what bakery they came from.

"I have no idea how it happened. We've never had anything like this before," Mitchell said.

Kristen Maas, a spokeswoman for QFC, said she's not aware of any similar tampering cases in the chain, which is owned by the Kroger Co.

"Food safety is a top priority for QFC. Everything that's in our control we do," Maas said.

The FDA says that cases of food tampering are rare but that consumers should examine packaging and not purchase anything that is open or torn.

Hutchison is an administrative assistant in The Seattle Times circulation department. She told her manager about the incident when she got to work Thursday morning, and he suggested she file a police report and contact the store, she said.

"I'd hate for it to happen to anyone else," Hutchison said.

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times researcher David Turim contributed to this story.