Canadian family left shaken as popular spice mix pack 'explodes'

Had I opened it with my teeth, my face would have been blown, Ajax-resident Farida Syed says

A Ajax family was left stunned after a foreign object in a popular spice mix packet 'exploded', CBC reported on Sunday. 

Ajax-resident Farida Syed said she was opening the haleem spice mix, a staple among the South Asian diaspora in North America, when a loud pop akin to the sound of a firecracker caused the box to catch fire.

"It was louder than a pop, it was much louder, it was like a firecracker," Syed said. "And then the flames started coming out of the pouch."

She said she discovered a black pouch inside the packet with a string which appeared to have caused the explosion. Syed said she doused the flames in her kitchen sink.

"If I had opened it with my teeth, which a lot of women in our community do, my face would have been blown," Syed said. "My face would have been burnt."



"This is a go-to item for fellow South Asians all over North America who use this product day in and day out," Syed's daughter Sheeba said. Police brought in both, a bomb squad and a forensics team to investigate, she said.

The object was later identified as a "fumigation product normally used to protect the food from insects." It remains unclear as to how the object got into the box, police said in a statement.



While the manufacturer of the product remained unavailable for comments, ITN, the Canadian distributor of the Pakistani company said it was actively involved in the probe. "Based on our current findings this particular incident is isolated but we are vigilantly monitoring the investigation and will provide any update where require," Tariq Ansari of the ITN said in an e-mail to the CBC.

This article originally appeared on CBC.