The Real Reason There Was Once A Funeral For 29,000 Pizzas

Heinz, a food processing company, approached Mario Fabbrini and asked him to manufacture and distribute his goods in Ohio and Michigan. By 1966, Fabbrini's business was booming, and his factory was manufacturing thousands of pizzas daily, per The Alpena News. In 1973, however, Fabbrini received devastating news from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding an immediate concern about one of the ingredients they used on the pizzas.

In January 1973, employees working at the United Canning facility in Ohio noticed that cans of mushrooms in their inventory have swelled. Swelling of canned goods may mean different things, notes Shelf Life Advice, which includes overfilling of the can, mishandling, or high temperatures in storage. However, one of the most common causes is the presence of bacteria. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled the products, and unfortunately for Fabbrini, the mushrooms he used on his pizzas were from the said company. He immediately halted production and submitted samples of frozen pizzas for testing. According to Atlas Obscura, the pizzas were fed to laboratory mice, and they died of suspected botulism.

Fabbrini recalled about 29,000 frozen pizzas from businesses he distributed to, and that's when he decided to hold a funeral. He was devastated, as he feared he would lose everything he worked hard for because of this setback. The cost of the wasted pizzas amounted to about $30,000 (approximately $197,500 in today's money).

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