A school canteen located in Nanchang, China, has recently sparked a heated debate after an object discovered in a student's meal raised suspicions of being a rat head. The incident quickly gained attention on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, with over 310 million views as of Wednesday, as reported by Chinese news website What's On Weibo.

According to the South China Morning Post, the incident unfolded at Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College and first surfaced on Chinese social media on June 1st. However, the college promptly debunked the allegations on June 3rd, asserting that the object in question was, in fact, a duck neck.

This trending topic received over 310 million views on Weibo today and it's quite Kafkaesque. June 1st, a student at a Jiangxi college finds a rat head in his cafeteria rice meal. When he makes a complaint, he's told that it's actually duck. He says, "but you can see its teeth!" pic.twitter.com/MCnW7V2JSG

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) June 7, 2023

Following the controversy, the local food regulatory department initiated an investigation on June 4th. Preliminary findings from the investigation confirmed that the item was indeed a duck neck. Nevertheless, samples of the school's dishes will undergo testing, and the results will be disclosed in the coming days.

Students Warned Not To Spread The News of The Incident 

In a peculiar turn of events, students from the college were reportedly instructed not to discuss the incident on the Internet, as reported by the Henan Business Newspaper. This development has further fueled the curiosity and speculation surrounding the case.

Not Their First Offence

It is worth noting that this is not the first time the college has faced such an incident. In November 2021, a rat was discovered in the canteen, as reported by The Paper. This previous incident has likely contributed to the skepticism expressed by many netizens regarding the canteen's claim that the object found in the student's meal was a duck neck.

On Weibo, a popular microblogging platform, a user named Jianghu Lifuxiang, who is known for their influential blog, posted a photo highlighting the striking similarities between the object and a rodent's skull. This post further heightened doubts among netizens, prompting one individual to question how a duck's neck could possess teeth.

Canteen's Decreasing Visitors

Despite the college's efforts to clarify the situation, numerous online users remain unconvinced, vehemently asserting that what they witnessed in the video footage was indeed a rat's head and not a duck's neck. Consequently, the incident has incited intense discussions and debates across various online platforms.

Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding the alleged rat head has had adverse consequences for the university canteen. The number of students dining at the canteen has significantly decreased, reflecting the impact of the incident on the college's reputation.

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