A woman was shocked to find a disturbing ingredient in a bowl of her mum's fish stew. Li Jiaqi, a social media user from Taiwan, posted photos online of what appeared to be a severed finger in the soup on May 21.

The photos, reposted to an online forum by her cousin, has sparked massive debate on what the ingredient really is.

The photos were uploaded to Taiwanese Facebook forum Baoliao Commune on May 22 by user Wu JinJia.

She reposted the photos of her cousin Li Jiaqi's fish stew containing a rather lifelike ingredient.

Wu said she was terrified when she received the photos from her cousin who joked that the object was her mum's finger.

However the object is a fish maw.