A woman has been scarred for life after claiming spaghetti hoops ‘exploded’ in her face, warning others to be cautious in the kitchen.
Phoebe Mason, 21, had just returned to uni for her second year when the horrifying incident happened.
She’d recently moved into her new house-share with seven others when she went to heat up a bowl of spaghetti hoops, which she planned to serve up alongside some fish fingers.
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However, the University of Leeds student was left in shock when she removed the bowl from the microwave and the boiling hot pasta shapes exploded in her direction, sticking to her skin.
After she had a cold shower, one of Phoebe’s housemates called 111, which was when she was advised to go immediately to A&E.
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Phoebe was bandaged up and told she’d suffered second degree burns.
"I was just making a classic uni dinner of fish fingers and spaghetti hoops,” she said.
"The spaghetti hoops were in a bowl and the fish fingers were in the oven.
"I went to take my hoops out of the microwave. I think I'd probably left them in there for a tiny bit too long.
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"I grabbed the bowl with a tea towel.
"From what the nurses said, there must have been an air pocket or something because when I put my fork in to stir them, they just exploded.
"It all kind of happened in the blink of an eye. It exploded all over me.
"I was wearing a sort of low cut top and a shirt and the hoops had actually stuck down the top so there were a few spaghetti hoop scars.
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"Until then, this was a staple uni meal for me to be honest. I'd have spaghetti hoops probably about five nights out of seven."
Phoebe, who is originally from Stalybridge in Greater Manchester, said she microwaved the hoops for two-and-a-half minutes, and now thinks this was 30 seconds too long.
She also added that spaghetti hoops may have exploded because she forgot to stir them in the middle of the cooking process.
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The philosophy and politics student, who works part-time in marketing, continued: "My friends realised what happened so they were bringing me cold towels. One of them ran a cold shower for me.
"I was in shock for about half an hour. I got out of the shower and I realised I was actually in quite a lot of pain.
"That was when my friends called 111 for me. They advised to A&E so I went and had the wounds dressed. I had bandages on for about two weeks.
"They classified them as second degree burns. I felt really stressed out. I'd just gotten back to uni.
"We were eight girls just trying to deal with it. We were only 19 and 20 at the time so it was all a bit stressful."
Phoebe still has some scarring from the incident, which happened in October 2022.
While she can now look back and laugh about the accident, she’s keen to stress the importance of being careful while cooking.
"I've still got quite a noticeable one on my shoulder and my chest but in terms of the hoop shaped ones, they've gone down quite nicely,” Phoebe continued.
"I didn't end up with any scarring on my face either, which is great.
"Now looking back on it, it's definitely something I can laugh at. It's such a niche experience and it's funny the way it happened with spaghetti hoops of all things.
"I'd never had any issue with it before. I'd done spaghetti hoops in the microwave like that so many times and nothing had ever happened before.
"I haven't exactly touched them since."
She added: "My advice to other students would be to follow the instructions on the tin and the recipes and maybe actually start learning how to cook things so you don't have to microwave things as much."
Tyla has reached out to Heinz for comment.
Topics: Health, Food and Drink, UK News
Jess Hardiman