A TikTok user is going viral after she said she found a live spider sealed inside a fortune cookie from Panda Express. The video, posted by user c4ndyrg, has been viewed more than 10.1 million times and has received over 839,900 likes and 16,100 comments.
The clip opens with a close-up shot of a Panda Express cup, a receipt, and a plastic-wrapped pack of two fortune cookies sitting on a table. A large, dark spider can be seen sitting on top of one of the cookies through the plastic wrapping. On-screen text reads, “when you get panda but the saxophones are getting louder.”
The camera then shows the woman sitting at the table with a Panda Express food container in front of her. She looks at the camera with a surprised expression and her hands slightly raised. The TikTok video’s caption states, “@Panda Express never eating one again.”
Creator says she noticed the spider only after putting her food down
In a follow-up TikTok video, the woman explained what happened while getting her hair done on camera. She said she did not notice the spider right away because she was not expecting to find one in her fortune cookie. According to her, the spider was likely resting inside the cookie and came out after she moved around, which probably woke it up.
She also addressed comments questioning whether the video was faked. “It is not AI,” she said. “As much as I wished it was AI, it is not AI.” She added that she does not use AI. Unexpected finds in packaged food are not unheard of, as a Brooklyn woman once opened Trader Joe’s hot honey popcorn to find something inside.
She recalled first noticing the spider while she was eating and saw something on the table. Her reaction, in her words, was: “Shoot, I think that’s a spider.” She figured she could just remove it from the table. When she looked closer, she saw it crawling on the cookie and realized she had not opened the cookie at all. She explained that when she picked it up, the spider was sealed inside the cookie, and she had not touched the cookie before that.
She noted that she was not scared because the spider was sealed inside the cookie and could not reach her. She and her sister then debated whether to tell a Panda Express employee, since she did not think it was the employee’s or the restaurant’s fault. In her view, the issue was linked to the manufacturer in California that makes the fortune cookies. Her sister recorded a video at the time in case no one believed her story.
She confirmed she did not remove the spider from the cookie or take it out. “I did not take the spider out of the cookie,” she said. “It was one spider and I am sorry I did not take it out.” She also stated that she did not kill the spider and instead left it alone.
She and her sister then brought the cookie to the counter at Panda Express. According to her, her sister told the employee about the spider, and the employee apologized and offered a replacement cookie. She assumes the original cookie was thrown away.
She added that she does not know Panda Express’s policy for situations like this and has not received a response from the company. Going forward, she said she will not eat another cookie from the chain, though she may still eat other food from Panda Express. Finding uninvited surprises in takeout is unsettling, like when a New Mexico woman bit into a Wingstop chicken tender and found something unexpected inside.
She also weighed in on questions about how the spider could have survived sealed inside the cookie for an extended period. She explained that she lives in Seattle, while the cookie manufacturer is based in California, and estimated the shipping process would take about three days. The spider must have had air inside the packaging, she reasoned, since it would not have survived otherwise, though she said she does not know how it stayed alive.
She mentioned that she chose not to open the fortune written on the paper inside the cookie because she was too scared. She also chose not to release the spider, despite comments from viewers hoping she would.
Viewers reacted to the original video with a range of comments. One person wrote, “it’s just their collab with Spider-Man Brand New Day.” Another commented, “that’s probably your fortune is to become spider man let it bite you.” A different user asked, “Dang how did it survive packaging so long.” Another wrote, “Your fortune is gonna be hella money cus that seems like an easy lawsuit.” One comment simply read, “Misfortune Cookie.”
It’s worth noting that this account is based entirely on the creator’s own retelling of events, and it cannot be independently verified whether the video depicts a real occurrence or was staged. Panda Express has not issued a public comment on the incident.
Published: Aug 7, 2026 10:07 am