JapanPress: Gecko found in chips died weeks after packaging

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: ASAHI SHIMBUN (Tokyo, Japan) 25 September 00 Gecko found in chips died weeks after packaging : A dead gecko found in a bag of potato chips in August survived for two or three weeks after being sealed in the bag at a Saitama factory, prefectural government officials said over the weekend. : The officials, citing a report issued by the Tokyo Research Laboratory of Public Health which examined the reptile and dung from the bag, said the creature probably crawled into the bag during packaging at the Calbee-affiliated factory in Higashi Matsuyama, Saitama Prefecture. : Tissue cell specimens from the lizard indicate it died in late July or early August, two to three weeks after the bag left the factory according to the laboratory report. : The report said neither the tissue cells nor the dung came into contact with heat, suggesting the gecko entered while the chips were being packaged. : According to Calbee officials, sealed bags contain around 2 percent oxygen to preserve the chips' freshness. : Prefectural public health officials said they had no idea how the gecko could have survived in such a low oxygen environment. : "This would have to be an extremely rare case," an official said. : The 15-centimeter creature was found by a woman in Tokyo on Aug. 9. : Calbee officials said the item was one of 60,000 bags of chips produced at the Higashi Matsuyama factory on July 11.

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