'Rat's head in canteen' incident creates lasting stir

An incident in which a suspected rat's head was found in food at a canteen at the Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, has continued to spark controversy.

On Saturday, a joint investigation team issued a notice on the incident saying that it will promptly announce its findings after the investigation. The team consists of members from Jiangxi's provincial departments of education and public security, the provincial State-owned assets supervision and administration commission, and the provincial market supervision administration, local media reported.

So far, about 53 million views have been made under the Weibo hashtag "investigation team formed for duck neck incident", as previous results released by Jiangxi's local market supervision administration said the "rat's head" turned out to be a "duck neck", which was also confirmed by the student who released the video.

On June 1, a video titled "A suspicious rat's head found in food at a collage in Jiangxi" went viral on social media.

On June 3, the college's official Sina Weibo account issued a statement in response to the incident, stating that the object in the food had been confirmed by the local market supervision administration to be a duck neck. The student who initially found it also said in a written statement that it was identified as a duck neck.

However, many people and news media, including the China News Service online, questioned the statement and asked, "What is the white striplike object in the picture? Is it a rat's tooth? What is the long, threadlike object that is suspected to be from a whisker? What is the basis for determining that it is a duck neck?"

On Friday, a China Newsweek report said a student had claimed to have found a green caterpillar in food from the same canteen. The Nanchang publicity department told China Newsweek that the claim is being investigated and they will notify the public of the results.

Although the canteen continued to operate normally after the incident, fewer people are using it. Instead, many students have been seen receiving takeout deliveries at the entrance of their dormitories, according to Top News, a media outlet based in Henan.