A student suffered second-degree burns when her favorite college food, Heinz Spaghetti Hoops, exploded in her face, leaving her with ring-shaped wounds.
Phoebe Mason, now 21, had just returned to the University of Leeds from Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, for her second year of her degree when she decided to prepare one of her favorite meals.
He poured the Heinz product into a container which he then put in the microwave as he had done many times before, but he believes he left them in too long this time.
However, when she took the rings out of the microwave, she claims the boiling product exploded in her face and stuck to her skin.
She jumped straight to a cold before one of her flatmates called 111 and she was immediately referred to A&E.
Phoebe Mason, 21, from Manchester, suffered second-degree burns after a plate of Heinz Spaghetti Hoops exploded in her face.
Phoebe said, “I was making a classic college dinner with fish fingers and spaghetti rings.”
‘The Spaghetti Hoops were in a bowl and the fish fingers were in the oven.
‘I went to take my earrings out of the microwave. I think I probably left them there too long.
‘I grabbed the bowl with a tea towel.
Phoebe, who studies at the University of Leeds, said she thinks she left the Spaghetti Hoops in the microwave for too long.
‘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.
“Everything happened in the blink of an eye. It exploded on me.
“I was wearing some sort of low-cut top and shirt and the underwires had stuck to the top, so there were some Spaghetti Hoop scars.
‘Until then, to be honest, this was basic college food. I would probably eat Spaghetti Hoops about five nights out of seven.
The Philosophy and Politics student claims that she put the rings in for two and a half minutes, and believes it was 30 seconds longer, also stating that the explosion could have occurred because she forgot to remove them.
The student still has marks on her skin after the accident that occurred in 2022
Phoebe believes that an air pocket in the Spaghetti Hoops may have burst, causing the contents of the container to explode in her face.
After the explosion, Phoebe’s housemate called 111, where the operator told her to go to the emergency room immediately.
Phoebe’s burns covered her face and chest, and emergency room doctors told her they were second-degree.
Phoebe, who works part-time in marketing, said: “My friends realized what happened and brought me cold towels.” One of them prepared a cold shower for me.
“I was in shock for about half an hour. I got out of the shower and realized that it actually hurt a lot.
“That’s when my friends called 111 for me. They recommended I go to the emergency room, so I went and they dressed my wounds. I had bandages on for about two weeks.
‘They were classified as second degree burns.
‘I felt very stressed. He had just returned to university.
‘We were eight girls trying to deal with it. We were only 19 and 20 at the time, so it was all a bit stressful.”
Despite the explosion that occurred in October 2022, Phoebe still has some scars.
While he now finds the accident amusing, he hopes to warn other students to learn to cook instead of relying on the microwave.
Phoebe said: “I still have a fairly visible one on my shoulder and chest, but in terms of the ring-shaped ones, they’ve gone down quite nicely.”
“I also didn’t end up with any scars on my face, which is great.”
‘Now that I think about it, it’s definitely something I can laugh about. It’s such a specific experience and it’s funny the way it happened with Spaghetti Hoops of all things.
‘I’ve never had any problems with that before. I had made Spaghetti Hoops in the microwave like this 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 can and the recipes and maybe start learning how to cook things so you don’t have to microwave them so much.”
Heinz has been contacted for comment.
