Satisfied diners say the food was “delicious.”

While some dads in Japan are tragically ignored on Father’s Day, manga artist Miso Suzuki (@MisoSuzuki on Twitter) is a much more devoted son. So instead of treating last Sunday like any other day, he decided to do something special by making a batch of miso soup for his family members to share.

Granted, miso soup itself is a pretty common part of the Japanese diet, but Suzuki decided to make “niboshi miso soup” by mixing in some dried sardines (niboshi) for an extra-gourmet touch. So he grabbed a bag of the fish and got cooking, and when he served his creation to his family, they all remarked about how delicious it was.

Perhaps basking in pride at his culinary success, Suzuki went back to look at the sardines’ packaging one more time, and only then made a startling discovery.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be anything upsetting on the front of the bag. Sure, it identifies the sardines as coming from budget-priced line Top Valu, but it also proudly proclaims that the fish were caught and processed in Japan, which imparts a premium prestige to them. No, the problem came on the backside of the bag, which identifies the product as “dried sardines to be eaten by pet dogs and cats.”

▼ “Hey, quit hogging my munchies!”

What’s more, the bag’s backside specifies that these are to be given to your animal companions as obedience rewards, which had Twitter commenters chuckling at Suzuki essentially giving his family treats for being well-trained. Another look at the front of the bag shows that the promotional text there eventually gets around to mentioning obedience rewards, although nothing in the text talks about pets, and the stylized illustration of a dog and cat in the bottom right corner don’t necessarily leap out and grab attention.

It’s not clear if Suzuki is a pet owner who simply put his animals’ snacks in the regular pantry by mistake, or if he bought the for-dogs/cats sardines entirely by mistake. Either way, he did feed them to his family, saying his was “appalled” at himself once he’d realized what he’d done (he doesn’t mention how his family took the news, or if he even told them).

As bad as Suzuki felt, other commenters tried to ease his guilt, saying that they’d made the same mistake themselves. Others said that aside from the for-pets sardines being lower in sodium, they think they’re the same as for-humans varieties, meaning Suzuki’s accidental soup was actually healthier than it would have been otherwise. And finally, as our reporters themselves can attest to, eating dog food won’t kill you.

Just don’t expect your family to ask for seconds once they know the ingredient list.

Source: Twitter/@MisoSuzuki via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso