A student says she was left with second-degree burns after a can of her favourite meal of Heinz spaghetti hoops exploded in her face - leaving her with hoop-shaped wounds.
Phoebe Mason, 21, just returned to Leeds University 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 happened. But when she removed the boiling hot bowl from the microwave, it blew up with the hot pasta hoops sticking to her face.
After she had a cold shower, one of her other seven flatmates decided to call NHS 111 and she was then directed to go to A&E where she was banged up and told she suffered from second-degree burns.
Phoebe, originally from Stalybridge, Greater Manchester said: "I was just making a classic university dinner of fish fingers and spaghetti hoops. The spaghetti hoops were in a bowl and the fish fingers were in the oven.
Phoebe shared a warning with students to learn how to cook and not rely on microwave meals (Kennedy News/@pheeb511)
Phoebe was told she had second-degree burns (Kennedy News/@pheeb511)"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.
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"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. 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 a half minutes and believes it was 30 seconds too long, also stating the explosion could have occurred as she had forgotten 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 A&E so I went and had the wounds dressed. I had bandages on for about two weeks.
The snack reportedly exploded in Phoebe's face after she took it out of a microwave (Kennedy News/@pheeb511)
Phoebe says she still has some scarring despite the accident happening in 2022 (Kennedy News/@pheeb511)"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 accident happening in October 2022, Phoebe still said she had some scarring. While she has found a funny side to the accident, she hopes to warn other students to learn how to cook rather than relying on a microwave meal.
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."
The Mirror has contacted Heinz for comment.
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