Woman’s face suffers burns after ‘Heinz spaghetti hoops explode in her face’
A student was left with second degree burns when her favourite university meal of Heinz spaghetti hoops exploded in her face – leaving her with hoop-shaped wounds.
Phoebe Mason had just returned to uni for her second year and was heating up a bowl of the tomato sauce coated snack to go with her fish fingers when the accident occurred.
While the 21-year-old had only recently moved into a new house she says she had used the microwave plenty of times already as she ate her beloved hoops ‘five out of seven days a week’.
But the University of Leeds student was left in shock when she removed them from the microwave and then boiling hot pasta hoops blew up in her face, sticking to her skin.
After having a cold shower, one of her seven other flatmates decided to call 111 where she was directed to go to A&E who bandaged her up and informed her she had suffered second degree burns.
Phoebe, originally from Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, said: ‘I was just making a classic uni dinner of fish fingers and spaghetti hoops.
‘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.
‘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.’
The philosophy and politics student claims she put the hoops in for two and half minutes, and believes it was 30 seconds too long, also stating the explosion could have occurred as she forgot to stir them in between this.
Phoebe, who works part-time in marketing, said: ‘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.’
Despite the explosion happening back in October 2022, Phoebe still has some scarring.
While she now finds the accident funny, she hopes to warn other students to learn how to cook instead of relying on the microwave.
Phoebe said: ‘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.
‘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.
‘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.’
Heinz has been contacted for comment.
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