Photo: Snapshot from Weibo

The "foreign object" found in a vocational school canteen is not rubber product or disposable glove, but highly resembles the structure of a duck's eyeball sclera based on testing results, according to the local market watchdog of Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday after a student claimed a suspected condom was found in his meal, while the school insisted it was the membrane of a duck eye.

The Guangzhou Institute of Food Inspection and the Guangzhou Quality Supervision and Testing Institute tested the duck-derived components, protein components from the samples of the "foreign object" through nucleic acid testing and protein detection. And morphological analysis and infrared detection showed the samples resembles a duck's eyeball sclera rather than natural rubber or polyethylene, according to testing result released by the Zengcheng district market regulator on Wednesday.

The district market watchdog announced on Tuesday that it immediately launched an investigation and suspended operations at the canteen in question after receiving media reports about the incident, promising to release the test results to the public as soon as possible following the samples being preserved and handed over to authorities for testing. 

On Monday, a student surnamed Li reported to media that he found a rubber foreign object while dining at the canteen of Huashi Foreign Language and Art Vocational School where he and his classmate were undertaking a short-term training course. 

Li and his classmates suspected the object was a condom. But the school told them the foreign object was in fact a duck eye membrane after tracing the food material supply chain and investigating potential operational errors. The school has also fined all kitchen staff members and dismissed the chef on duty at the time.

The school told media that they have provided an explanation to the students and their parents, but Li said he doesn't believe the school's statement as the rubber foreign object looked very different from a duck's eye membrane and there was no third-party testing reports to support the school's claim, in addition to no refund for his meal or commitment to improve the kitchen hygiene. 

"The duck would say why it is always the scapegoat for food safety incidents?" a netizen mocked after a college food scandal caused widespread public disgust and online ridicule in June. Some netizens said people should wait for the testing results from the third-party firm before rushing to judgment.

A provincial investigation team in East China's Jiangxi said that the unusual object discovered in food at a college canteen in the provincial capital Nanchang was a "rat head" and not a "duck neck" as previously claimed by the local market watchdog.