Golf balls might be in your hash browns because sports are everywhere

Sometimes foods get contaminated and companies have to issue a recall. Sometimes it’s E.coli, sometimes salmonella and sometimes it’s golf balls.

That’s right! Certain bags of frozen hash browns manufactured by McCain Foods USA have been contaminated by golf balls, so the company issued a recall for the offending bags of southern-style hash browns.

The recall applies to two-pound bags of both Roundy’s Brand and Harris Teeter Brand frozen, southern-style hash browns bagged on or after Jan. 19.

Golf balls aren’t poisonous, but they could cause injury to the mouth area if consumed. Especially if you eat hash browns at the quick pace I tend to enjoy them. Burning your mouth is one thing, but cutting it on a hunk of golf ball is another. (Here’s one of those videos that shows you what’s inside a golf ball that the internet was really into in 2013 and 2014.)

How could this have happened?

The company said in their statement that the golf balls were “inadvertently harvested with potatoes.” Oh. Of course.

As our colleagues at the Verge pointed out, maybe McCain Foods is looking at ways to grow golf balls.

However, I, an intellectual, decided to do some very specific potato research, in the name of sports. I took to potatopro.com to figure some things out.

This product falls under frozen potato specialties.

These particular potatoes were distributed in Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, and Maryland.

McCain’s processing plants are in Burley, Idaho; Easton, Maine; Plover, Wis.; and Othello, Wash. They do have other facilities in New Jersey and California.

Clearly the farms these potatoes were grown on were somewhere in close proximity to a golf course — so close, that the balls were right in there with the potatoes! McCain doesn’t make it easy to find their suppliers, but I have to think that it must be one of the California farms.

Next time you’re on the golf course, look out for nearby potato farms. You could be contaminating our hash browns.