The photo provided by Qi of her chip with hair. Photo: media

 According to media reports, after a consumer found a handful of hairs on a potato chip, the brand Lay's compensated 1,000 yuan ($157) in accordance with the food safety laws. However, the corporation said in a statement that the hairs were roots of potatoes and were edible.

A woman surnamed Qi bought three packs of Lay's potato chips at a supermarket in Shanghai. When she opened the packs, however, she found some hairs on one chip that looked like burnt hair, a local media outlet reported.

Qi told the media that Lay's offered to compensate more bags of chips for the incident at first, but Qi refused. Later, Lay's offered to pay out in accordance with food safety laws, but asked to take back the product. According to a screenshot of the WeChat chat history published by the media. Lay's compensated her 1,000 yuan.

The official Sina Weibo account of Lay's released a statement on Sunday saying that an internal investigation showed that the handful of hairs were the rhizome of a potato, a part of a potato's natural composition, and not a food safety concern. 

Global Times