Nasty Things Found In Food & Drink

[Feyri]

Re: Some more of the chef's special sauce?

Originally posted by Emperor

Sweet said that Lindhorst worked at the restaurant for about a year until he was fired in April for bringing brownies to work that he had baked with marijuana. Lindhorst served the brownies to two co-workers and that two of the aggravated battery charges stem from that incident, Sweet said.

Hmmmm. Some people got stoned and then started fighting? I don't know anyone who feels aggressive enough to fight after having a toke....

:hmm:

 

[Anonymous]

Madame et Monseur, for your delectation!

Warning, this is yukky.

 

[lopaka]

I have no idea why, but I have nagging doubts whether their story is legit.-lopaka



HANSON, Mass. (AP) - A woman who found a live toad in her McDonald's salad two weeks ago says she is upset at the slow response to the incident.

Dorinda McCann, 34, found the two-inch long toad in a takeout salad bought at the restaurant chain's Hanson location on June 16.

Both the restaurant's owner and the town health department are investigating, but McCann said did not hear from the owner until Tuesday, and she is still awaiting to hear from the health department.

``I was sick - what if I had salmonella poisoning? Did anybody call?'' she told The Enterprise of Brockton.

Town health agent Vincent Flaherty said he is waiting to learn the origin of the toad, which is being tested by the California-based company that processes the lettuce used in McDonald's salads.

Restaurant owner Mark McBee tried to contact the McCanns on several occasions and never received a return call until Tuesday, Tara Richards, a spokeswoman for McBee, told The Associated Press.

``The safety of our food is very important to us and we are taking this matter very seriously,'' she said. ``We are working to gather all of the facts. The health department completed a thorough review of restaurant operations and gave the restaurant a clean bill of health.''

Meanwhile, McCann, her husband, Thomas, and their two daughters, once regular McDonald's customers, have stopped going to the restaurant. The McCanns have also consulted a lawyer, but have not taken any legal action.


06/30/04 20:49

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/st...ff/story/0001/20040630/2049581723.htm&sc=1120

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Published July 4, 2004

Hollister judge horrified at finding a mouse in his beer



By Kathryn Buckstaff
News-Leader Staff

Hollister — It'll be a long time before Judge Randy Anglen can enjoy a cold bottle of beer.

On a Tuesday in late May, Anglen — Hollister's municipal judge and a practicing attorney for 14 years in Taney County — came home from work, had dinner and grabbed a Miller Lite from the fridge. He slipped it into a cooler sleeve, twisted off the top and drank the beer over the next few minutes. He drained the last bit into the sink so he could put the bottle in his recycling bin.

When he set the dark brown bottle on the counter, he heard a "plop" as something dropped from the neck to the bottom of the bottle. He pulled the bottle out of its sleeve. When he peered into it, the first thing he saw was a long tail coiling around the inside of the bottle.

Then he saw the rest of the mouse.

A big, whole dead mouse.

"The first thing I did was scream in horror. Then I screamed in revulsion. Then I dropped to the ground, holding my head in my hands while I was still screaming.

"My wife ran in, holding our 1-year-old, and she started screaming and the baby was screaming because she didn't know what was wrong with me. It was five minutes before I could regain enough composure to say: 'Don't worry. I'm OK.'"

Anglen says retelling the story engenders nausea.

"I was so revulsed. That moment just gels in your mind. I have no adjectives to describe how bad it was. I wanted to reach inside my body and pull my guts out and hose them off. I couldn't sleep for two nights, and then I got sick, which I attribute in part to lack of sleep."

Once he regained some composure that night and found sleep elusive, Anglen called the Miller Brewing Co. distributor in Springfield. Although it was 11 p.m., someone answered the phone and gave Anglen the telephone number for Miller's Milwaukee, Wisc., headquarters.

The next morning, a Miller representative told him to pack the bottle in dry ice and mail it to them, so "they could determine if it was a mouse," Anglen said.

"The first thing I said was, 'I'm an attorney, and that's the evidence."

The representative told Anglen that it might be a clump of algae in the bottle.

"I've never seen algae with four little feet and a tail and a head and gray fur," Anglen said.

Anglen called other beer companies including Coors to find out how they would handle such a situation. One company said they'd never faced this and had no procedures in place.

After more conversations with Miller officials, they gave Anglen the name of an expert in mouse identification. Anglen packed the bottle with mouse in dry ice and shipped it to Dr. William B. Jackson, professor emeritus of the Department of Biological Sciences at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Jackson said he thawed the critter which he identified as an adult male deer mouse. Photos of the autopsied mouse show blood-filled organs inside, which could indicate the mouse had not been pasteurized.

"That was my last hope for feeling good that at least it was a sanitized mouse," Anglen said.

dead or alive

Jackson identified a code on the bottle indicating it was brewed in Fort Worth, Texas, one of Miller's six breweries.

Company officials have not yet provided Jackson with information he has requested to determine conclusively whether the mouse entered the bottle alive or dead, he said.

"In each batch, as it's pasteurized, there's a record of what temperatures are achieved for how long," Jackson said.

"At this point, I'm waiting for more information as to how it had been treated, whether the normal length of heating had been followed and if there was any interruption of the process."

Jackson has done commercial analysis for companies and individuals "from either side of the fence" for decades.

He has testified in court in some cases, and has analyzed other beer-bottle mice, he said.

"This is not unique," Jackson said. Still, there's no reason the public should be alarmed.

"In general, the food and beverage supply in this country is very good," Jackson said. "Our food and drink is clean and pure."

Most of the problems he sees result from improper storage in an industrial situation or in the home, he said.

"If people don't close containers or don't maintain a clean environment, pests of various sorts can get into the food supply," Jackson said. "One case every now and then — while it's certainly potentially disagreeable — doesn't necessarily mean everything is dirty. Our manufacturers are doing a good job of maintaining a good food supply and should get credit for it."

Miller Brewing Company is taking a wait-and-see attitude — and so is Anglen.

While he's not out to get rich over the incident, he would like Miller to offer him an appropriate compensation for his emotional trauma, he said. He hasn't set a figure yet, he said.

On his side, Anglen has the evidence — the mouse — and the testimony of his wife.

Anglen said he thinks it's significant that the beer hissed with carbonation when he opened it and that it came from a sealed 18-pack box recently purchased. And Jackson told Anglen that the mouse had no broken bones.

But Anglen said he knows that his credibility will be tested.

"I'll do whatever they want including taking a lie-detector test," Anglen said. "They need to know that I've got other things to do besides hatching a scheme to defraud Miller by putting a mouse in my beer."

Faking it

Others apparently had nothing better to do.

On Mother's Day, a woman having lunch with her two sons at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Newport News, Va., reported to the wait staff that she had found a mouse in her vegetable soup. A necropsy found the mouse had died of a skull fracture before it entered the soup.

The woman subsequently asked for money in exchange for her 20-year-old son's confession that he put the mouse in the soup, according to The Nashville Tennessean.

The 36-year-old mother and her son were arrested and have been charged with attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit fraud.

Miller Brewing company spokesman Scott Bussen said large companies often deal with complaints.

"It's not uncommon to get someone every three or four months who claims to have found a mouse or something rodentlike in there," Bussen said.

"But when we do an analysis, it turns out it didn't happen here in any of our breweries. With any large company, people see an opportunity and assume the company will just write a check without looking into the legitimacy of the complaint."

Miller produces 40 million barrels of beer a year with each barrel filling 32 cases, Bussen said. There can be up to about a four-month window from packaging to sales, he said.

"Because of the way bottles are stored and how the brewing process works, it would be highly unlikely, but not impossible" for a mouse to get into a bottle, Bussen said. "It would take someone really wanting to mess around with it.

"If the mouse in question had undergone pasteurization," Bussen said, the company's experts say "there's no way ... the consumer would not taste the difference."

Bussen said they are eager to resolve this complaint.

"Our attorneys are trying to work out getting the package here," Bussen said.

"Hopefully, we can resolve this amicably pretty quickly."

For Anglen, the entire incident has one big saving grace:

"I won the lottery (in) that I was the one who got that bottle and not my wife," he said.

http://www.news-leader.com/today/0704-Hollisterj-125683.html

There is also an odd series of phots with the report 'recreating' the event.

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I do hope this isn't what they think it is:

A foot in their chicken dinner?




BY ERIC OLSON : The Herald-Sun
[email protected]
Jul 12, 2004 : 9:40 pm ET

DURHAM -- A Durham family may have gotten more than poultry in their chicken dinner Monday night.

Authorities are investigating whether the questionable item was a baby's foot or just a strange-shaped piece of chicken, Durham police spokesman Lt. N.J. Blake said.

"Our ID tech looked at it and said it looked like a foot to him," Blake said.

The family, whose name was unavailable Monday night, bought a package of pre-cooked chicken Monday from the Lowes Foods at The Village shopping center, 1001 N. Miami Blvd., Blake said.

They then took the food to their apartment at Rochelle Manor, where they discovered the unusual piece, Blake said. The family, none of whom ate the chicken, then notified police.

Officers seized the item and have stored it in the Police Department's evidence room, police said.

Police also contacted N.C. Chief Medical Examiner John Butts, who said he wanted to look at the item this morning, Blake said.

"It's breaded, and it's already cooked," police Sgt. Maurice Hayes said. "It was in the shape of a foot, but anything could be the shape of a foot. I'm just trying to be optimistic here until the medical examiner can make his determination."

Blake said police also alerted the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Durham County Health Department, but officials couldn't say what brand of chicken was involved.

A Lowes Foods manager reached Monday night referred all questions to the company's corporate offices in Winston-Salem, but no one was available to answer calls Monday night.

Hayes said Lowes employees pulled the remainder of the suspect chicken from the store's shelves Monday.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-500141.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Phew

Suspected human foot was just dough



BY ERIC OLSON : The Herald-Sun
[email protected]
Jul 13, 2004 : 9:09 pm ET

DURHAM -- Officials determined Tuesday that a suspected human foot found in a package of chicken Monday was really just a piece of dough.

The object apparently had been shaped intentionally to resemble a small foot, police said.

"It is not a part of any person, so it's some other kind of material or something like that," N.C. Chief Medical Examiner John Butts said. "It looks like something that is uncanningly human."

A family at the Rochelle Manor Apartments discovered the suspicious-looking object in a package of frozen chicken pieces Monday afternoon, police said. The family had bought the chicken earlier in the day at Lowes Foods store in The Village shopping center on North Miami Boulevard.

After finding the piece, they notified police, who took the object to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill.

Butts said preliminary results showed that the object was dough.

"I think that is probably what it is," he said. "We're running a few more tests to determine exactly what it was."

According to investigators, the piece was tampered with before the package of frozen chicken reached Lowes Foods, and the tampering appears to be an isolated incident.

"We'll run another test to try to identify what it might be and turn it back to authorities and see what they will do with it," Butts said.

Police said Monday that they had called the Durham County Health Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Butts and police spokesman Lt. N.J. Blake said they were uncertain what brand of chicken was involved in the incident.

http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-500506.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

eeeeeew

Sisters Find Bird's Head Inside Can Of Spinach

Company Says Discovery Not Health Hazard

POSTED: 9:45 am PDT July 16, 2004
UPDATED: 10:10 am PDT July 16, 2004

HOUSTON -- Two Houston sisters get more than they bargained for during lunch.

Identical twins Tracy and Stacy Thomas were preparing their lunch when they opened a can of Allen's Popeye Spinach and found a bird's head inside.

"You have to wonder, how did it happen? How is it getting in there?" Stacy Thomas asked.

The Thomas sisters said the canning company told them it was not a health hazard and asked them to send the spinach and bird's head to a company lab for study.

The women said from now on they're only eating fresh spinach from the produce aisle.

http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/3537992/detail.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Suit claims man found maggots in Denny's milk in Norfolk

By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 24, 2004 | Last updated 12:57 AM Jul. 24

NORFOLK — Russell L. Long sat down for breakfast at a local Denny’s restaurant two years ago and was served, along with his breakfast, a glass of maggot-contaminated milk, according to a

Suit claims man found maggots in Denny's milk in Norfolk

By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 24, 2004 | Last updated 12:57 AM Jul. 24

NORFOLK — Russell L. Long sat down for breakfast at a local Denny’s restaurant two years ago and was served, along with his breakfast, a glass of maggot-contaminated milk, according to a $1 million lawsuit that was filed this week in federal court.

The suit doesn’t say whether Long consumed the organisms, but the experience continues to bother him physically and mentally.

Long, the suit says, “has been hampered by not being able to eat at any restaurants and has not been able to enjoy daily family meals as well as special occasions and holiday gatherings involving food and drink.”

Denny’s denies the allegation but says in a cross-claim that if the milk did contain maggots, they must have come from the supplier, Marva Maid.

“It is our intent to vigorously defend ourselves,” said Debbie Atkins, director of public relations at Denny’s corporate headquarters in Spartanburg, S.C. “We’ll let the facts speak for themselves in court.”

Long, who was living in Virginia Beach at the time, went to the Denny’s at 198 Newtown Road about 8:30 a.m. Aug. 1, 2002. He ordered breakfast and a glass of milk.

Denny’s “did then and there carelessly, recklessly, wantonly and negligently serve the plaintiff a glass of milk containing maggots,” the suit says.

It goes on to say that Denny’s “failed to maintain a clean and safe milk dispenser free of maggots and other organisms.”

Long says in the suit that he has lost weight and “has sustained a mental disorder.” He also says that he suffered poor academic performance in college as a result.

Maggots are the larvae of the housefly or blowfly. The tiny whitish or yellowish wormlike creatures typically feast on decaying organic matter.

The suit does not explain how maggots could have gotten into an enclosed container of milk. The Denny’s kitchen serves milk from a soda-fountain like dispenser.

The maggot incident was just one in a series of problems, the suit claims. That particular Denny’s has a pattern “of serving its patrons food and drink containing maggots and organisms,” the suit says.

It notes that Virginia Beach Department of Public Health restaurant-inspection reports show continuing violations, but it does not provide specifics.

In inspection reports obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, the Denny’s on Newtown Road has had repeated and critical violations dating to early 2003. Among the critical reports is a repeat violation for having open drinking containers and keeping eggs and cream at unsafe temperatures. In five inspections since January 2003, the Newtown Road Denny’s has had 77 health violations. Each was corrected at the time of the visit, but several recurred on subsequent inspections.

Frank Scanlon, environmental health manager for Virginia Beach, said that particular Denny’s has not had any suspensions or revocations of its health permit.

In papers filed by Denny’s, the company says that if the maggot incident did occur, Long should share some responsibility.

Long’s “negligence was a proximate cause of the accident,” the papers say. Denny’s also says that Long could not have been injured to the extent that he alleges.

Long could not be reached for comment on Friday. He no longer lives at the Virginia Beach address listed for him at the time of the incident. His attorney, Cheryl D. Footman-Banks, did not return a phone call from the newspaper.

Marva Maid’s attorney said he could not comment because he had not seen the suit.

There have been no hearing dates scheduled in U.S. District Court. The case was originally filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court but transferred to federal court at Denny’s request.

million lawsuit that was filed this week in federal court.

The suit doesn’t say whether Long consumed the organisms, but the experience continues to bother him physically and mentally.

Long, the suit says, “has been hampered by not being able to eat at any restaurants and has not been able to enjoy daily family meals as well as special occasions and holiday gatherings involving food and drink.”

Denny’s denies the allegation but says in a cross-claim that if the milk did contain maggots, they must have come from the supplier, Marva Maid.

“It is our intent to vigorously defend ourselves,” said Debbie Atkins, director of public relations at Denny’s corporate headquarters in Spartanburg, S.C. “We’ll let the facts speak for themselves in court.”

Long, who was living in Virginia Beach at the time, went to the Denny’s at 198 Newtown Road about 8:30 a.m. Aug. 1, 2002. He ordered breakfast and a glass of milk.

Denny’s “did then and there carelessly, recklessly, wantonly and negligently serve the plaintiff a glass of milk containing maggots,” the suit says.

It goes on to say that Denny’s “failed to maintain a clean and safe milk dispenser free of maggots and other organisms.”

Long says in the suit that he has lost weight and “has sustained a mental disorder.” He also says that he suffered poor academic performance in college as a result.

Maggots are the larvae of the housefly or blowfly. The tiny whitish or yellowish wormlike creatures typically feast on decaying organic matter.

The suit does not explain how maggots could have gotten into an enclosed container of milk. The Denny’s kitchen serves milk from a soda-fountain like dispenser.

The maggot incident was just one in a series of problems, the suit claims. That particular Denny’s has a pattern “of serving its patrons food and drink containing maggots and organisms,” the suit says.

It notes that Virginia Beach Department of Public Health restaurant-inspection reports show continuing violations, but it does not provide specifics.

In inspection reports obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, the Denny’s on Newtown Road has had repeated and critical violations dating to early 2003. Among the critical reports is a repeat violation for having open drinking containers and keeping eggs and cream at unsafe temperatures. In five inspections since January 2003, the Newtown Road Denny’s has had 77 health violations. Each was corrected at the time of the visit, but several recurred on subsequent inspections.

Frank Scanlon, environmental health manager for Virginia Beach, said that particular Denny’s has not had any suspensions or revocations of its health permit.

In papers filed by Denny’s, the company says that if the maggot incident did occur, Long should share some responsibility.

Long’s “negligence was a proximate cause of the accident,” the papers say. Denny’s also says that Long could not have been injured to the extent that he alleges.

Long could not be reached for comment on Friday. He no longer lives at the Virginia Beach address listed for him at the time of the incident. His attorney, Cheryl D. Footman-Banks, did not return a phone call from the newspaper.

Marva Maid’s attorney said he could not comment because he had not seen the suit.

There have been no hearing dates scheduled in U.S. District Court. The case was originally filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court but transferred to federal court at Denny’s request.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=73500&ran=166459

 

[knoel1]

Not the worst thing to find in your food....

Teen finds partially smoked joint in McDonalds yogurt
By The Associated Press

(7/24/04 - SAN BENITO, TX) Ñ A teenager says she found a partially smoked, quarter-inch long marijuana cigarette in her frozen yogurt parfait at a McDonald's in South Texas.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/state/072404_APstate_mcdonalds.html


(i guess if i had a choice re: all the things posted that have been found in food, this would be least objectionable)

 

[Sarah_P]

Yuck! I found a crystalised Bee in one of my Gran's Rock Cakes once (it must have been in the packet of raisins) but that really pales in comparison to these! I may never eat again.

 

[Breezilla]

My father once found live insects in his oatmeal. I believe it was the instant kind... He poured the packet into a bowl and small black speck-like bugs were crawling about in it. He reported it to Quaker, and they sent him coupons for more oatmeal. *blink*

A few weeks ago, I found an earwig in my McDonald's milkshake. Never reported it because it would have been hard to prove as the milkshake was left out a while, so the insect could have easily crawled down the straw. (It certainly came UP the straw. :cross eye )

I do have a picture of it. Somewhere...

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996297

Sewage waters a tenth of world's irrigated crops
12:01 18 August 04

NewScientist.com news service

A tenth of the world’s irrigated crops - everything from lettuce and tomatoes to mangoes and coconuts - are watered by sewage. And much of that sewage is raw and untreated, gushing direct from sewer pipes into fields at the fringes of the developing world’s great megacities, reveals the first global survey of the hidden practice of waste-water irrigation.

And, however much consumers may squirm, farmers like it that way. Because the stinking, lumpy and pathogen-rich sewage is rich in nitrates and phosphates that fertilise crops free of charge, suggests the survey presented at the Stockholm Water Symposium on Tuesday.

“Wastewater irrigation is in an institutional no-man’s land,” said Chris Scott of the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, co-editor of the study. “Water, health and agriculture ministries in many countries outlaw the practice, but refuse to recognise that it is widespread.”

He estimates that 20 million hectares of the world’s farms are irrigated with sewage. A quarter of Pakistan’s vegetables, including salad crops, are grown in sewage effluent, the study found.

And business is booming. One farmer in the heart of an un-named West African city grows 12 crops of lettuce a year from his sewage farm. In many fast-growing megacities, clean water is in desperately short supply, where sewage is plentiful. And the sewage pipes keep flowing even in the dry season, when irrigation canals often dry up.


Toxic waste


Farms hooked up to sewage pipes make big profits. The study found that in parts of Pakistan the price of fields watered by sewage pipes is twice that of neighbouring fields irrigated with clean water.

In Mexico, Jordan, Israel and Tunisia, sewage is specially treated to remove pathogens and make it safe for irrigation. But in India, China and Pakistan, the study found that treatment is rare. The sewage is added to fields complete with disease-causing pathogens and toxic waste from industry.

Sewage is probably the biggest source of water for urban farming, which provides an estimated one fifth of the world’s food, said Scott. In Hyderabad, the Indian city where he works, “pretty much a 100 per cent of the crops grown around the city rely on sewage,” he said. “There is no other water available.”

Many consumers would not buy produce at markets if they knew it had been grown in sewage, he agrees. “Often farmers take the produce to distant markets, where customers don’t know how it is produced.” And farmers themselves run the greatest risks of disease, he points out.

But the study concludes that banning the practice is not usually practicable. “We need to recognise that sewage is a valuable resource that grows huge amounts of food. So instead we should help the millions of farmers involved to do it better,” said Scott.


Fred Pearce, Stockholm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Puntacluar:

FINGER FOOD' FREAKOUT AS DINER BITES HAND THAT FEEDS HER

By DAREH GREGORIAN


August 23, 2004 -- A Manhattan woman has filed a million suit against a Midtown restaurant after she ordered a salad that was finger-licking bad.

In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Marina Andriynannikova said she chomped on a human fingertip while eating a beet salad from Rue 57 Brasserie.

The restaurant and its lawyer didn't return calls for comment. Andriynannikova's lawyer, Steven Newman, declined to talk.

The suit says the nail-biting incident happened on Aug. 19 of last year, when Andriynannikova and her fiancé got some takeout from the restaurant, which is on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 57th Street.

Once inside their nearby apartment, her fiancé offered her some of his salad. She enjoyed it — until she said she "bit on something hard."

"At first, I didn't realize what it was. Then I noticed a nail and some flesh," she said.

The couple called the restaurant, and a manager went to the apartment. "He was refusing to accept what it was" — until he discovered a short time later a staffer who'd prepared it "had cut his finger," Andriynannikova said.

The suit charges the restaurant with negligence — and also blames the unidentified employee for failing "to determine the location of his severed fingertip."

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29288.htm

I mean if you cut the end off your finger wouldn't you be just a teensy bit curious about where it ended up? Even if you were otherwise occupied (with bleeding and stuff) wouldn't someone think to look for it? Also there must ave been blood all over the food being prepared - did they just rinse it off and plop it all in the salad?

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Possibly not in but on food:

Man arrested for contaminating produce at Bellevue Safeway

2004-09-21
by David A. Grant
Journal Reporter


BELLEVUE -- A Safeway grocery store here was closed at midnight Sunday and a man was arrested after a small amount of suspected human fecal matter was discovered on a head of broccoli.

Bellevue police arrested the 23-year-old homeless man, whose last address was in Seattle, at a park across the street from the store, which is located at 1645 140th Ave. N.E.

The store is offering refunds or exchanges to anyone who purchased produce at the store between 7:30 and 11 p.m.

It was not clear Monday exactly how the fecal matter got onto the produce.

Tory Mangione, a spokesman for the Bellevue police, said employees first learned of the contamination late Sunday when the suspect approached a worker and complained of fecal matter in the produce section.

Because the man was speaking in a low voice the employee approached him to hear better, at which point the employee noticed a fecal odor, Mangione said.

Employees immediately investigated, called police at 10:30 p.m. and closed the produce section.

``It was a minute amount at best,'' Safeway spokeswoman Cherie Myers said Monday. ``But it doesn't matter whether it was one or 10 products.

``We felt it was necessary to completely sanitize the department, remove all the products and replace them with new products.''

She said the produce department was closed at 10:30 p.m. when employees called police to report the suspected contamination.

They closed the entire store at midnight to inspect the rest of the merchandise and reopened at 6 a.m. Monday. Normally the store is open 24 hours.

Police found the man around midnight at Highland Park, across the street from the Safeway store, where he had reportedly been camping for two days prior to the incident, Mangione said.

He said officers found a trace amount of suspected feces on a head of broccoli at the store, as well as on the man. The evidence was sent to a lab for analysis.

The man is in King County jail and a charge of first-degree malicious mischief is pending, said Mangione.

Myers declined to say how many produce purchases were made during the three-and-a-half-hour window of possible contamination. As of late Monday afternoon, Myers said she was not aware of any customers who had returned contaminated produce, although television news reports did show at least one customer returning food.

Anyone who does have suspected produce to return is encouraged to put it in a sealed plastic bag, which will be forwarded to police.

Police estimated Safeway's loss due to the produce that was thrown away at ,000.

Signs went up in the store's produce department late Monday afternoon notifying customers of the ``possible contamination of product.''

Safeway's Myers said the company did not anticipate anything such as this and has no plans to do anything different in its stores.

``It isn't something you would even think would happen. It just doesn't hit your radar screen,'' Myers said. ``This is an isolated case. In my 35 years with the company this is a first.''

http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/173767

 

[lopaka]

I like turnip greens, but fresh, from the market

U.S.
Customer finds rat parts in food
Piccadilly restaurant recalls turnip greens brand

Wednesday, October 13, 2004 Posted: 8:48 AM EDT (1248 GMT)


MORROW, Georgia (AP) -- The Piccadilly restaurant chain has recalled a brand of turnip greens sold at some of its 132 restaurants after a customer at a Georgia outlet bit into greens containing rat body parts.

The parts came into the restaurant in Morrow frozen with the greens, which were supplied by a vendor, the chain's regional manager, Clint Celestin, said Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the local health department, Sheryl Taylor, said her agency's investigation was inconclusive as to the source of the contamination.

Celestin did not know exactly how many of the restaurants, located mainly in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic region, were affected by the recall.

"We had all that product removed from all of our stores that day," he said of the Sept. 1 incident. "Anything that was opened was thrown away. Anything that was unopened in the freezer was picked up by our supplier and sent back to the vendor."

The customer, Collis L. Warren, said he was halfway through his meal when he said to himself: "That looks like hair or fur." The 40-year-old truck driver added that he may have inadvertently eaten some of the rat.

His lawyer said Warren plans to sue. Mike Misuraca, Piccadilly Cafeterias' risk manager, said he could not comment on the pending lawsuit.

The health department identified the vendor that sold the turnip greens as Magic Valley Fresh Frozen Inc., of McAllen, Texas.

Larry Griffin, the company's president, declined comment Tuesday on the incident.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

EDIT: forgot to add the link

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/13/picadilly.recall.ap/index.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Not as bad as some but it may still upset a few people:

Vegetarians see red over smarties dye

VEGETARIANS criticised the makers of top-selling sweet Smarties today for using an ingredient obtained from crushed beetles.

The brightly-coloured snack contains a red dye processed from the dried body of the female cochineal insect, collected in central America.

It produces the colorant cochineal, otherwise known as carmine or E120.

The Vegetarian Society named Smarties, made by food giant Nestle, the winner of its Imperfect World Award at a ceremony in London.

Two other products were nominated in the category, for food and drink that appears suitable for vegetarians until closer inspection.

Guinness uses isinglass, a form of gelatine made from fish bladders, in the production process to make the stout clearer.

The second runner-up was Bassett's Liquorice Allsorts, which contains gelatine made from animal bones, according to the Vegetarian Society.

Tina Fox, the charity's chief executive, said: "There are some companies putting gremlins on our shopping lists - making products that at first glance are vegetarian, but then you look a little closer, do a little research and find out that the sweets your toddler asks for or the beer your host offers you, actually use animal by-products.

"We know the deliciousness of these products doesn't depend on the animal ingredients, and the Imperfect World Award is a message to manufacturers to consider the alternatives."

In a statement, Nestle said: "Cochineal, otherwise known as carmine, is probably the best known of all food colours.

"The raw material for cochineal manufacture is obtained from insects native to Mexico, but a number of extraction and purification processes have to be gone through to make the preparation used for food colouring."

The company said it appreciated the needs of vegetarians but "we cannot, unfortunately, produce small quantities of special sweets to meet these varied demands."

It pointed out that it made a number of vegetarian-friendly sweets including Aero, After Eight, Double Cream, Matchmakers, Rolo, Quality Street, and Yorkie.

A spokeswoman for Guinness said: "According to our product team, isinglass is the only fining agent we can use. It has been approved for use in the UK.

"There should be no residue in the finished beer so as far as I'm concerned it is suitable for vegetarians."

Cadbury Trebor Bassett were initially unavailable to comment on the nomination.

Source

 

[CuriousIdent]

I once found a partially eaten digestive biscuit in a pack of Walker's Smoky Bacon Crisps...

I sent my offending packet back to Walkers, who wrote back to me assuring me that it was in fact just a solid lump of flavouring powder, and would have been perfectly safe to have eaten it...

I would have bought that, were it not for the fact that I had been able to read the McVities text on the side of the offending biscuit...

It was many years before I ventured towards another pack of those.

Pork Scratchings rock by the way! Providing they arrive on the tableafter a few pints, mind...

 

[TheQuixote]

There's muffin worse! Nov 15 2004
By Jamsheed Din, Evening Mail

After a day without food, Israr Mahmood couldn't wait to tuck into his favourite chocolate muffin.

But this time it wasn't the chocolate chip which tickled his taste buds.

Instead the 19-year-old security guard, from Alum Rock, was greeted by a slimy slug which had already beaten him to the smooth chocolate.

[...]

He bought the muffin from the Total petrol station, Washwood Heath Road, and then took it home to eat when he made the slimy discovery.

Israr then began counting the holes in the McVities muffin where the hungry slug had been making its way through the tunnels of chocolate chip.

He said: "I counted four holes and then in the morning when I looked again there were six. It had pretty much eaten a lot of the inside of the muffin.

"I still keep wondering what would have happened had I bitten into it? Luckily it presented itself before I did that."

Helen Humphreys, from United Biscuits who own McVities, said: "We will get hold of the packaging and trace it back and do a full investigation but we need to get the full information.

"We will undertake a thorough investigation."

© owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Plc

icBirmingham. co.uk

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Sheep's Brain Found In School Cafeteria Dressing

POSTED: 10:55 am EST January 14, 2005
UPDATED: 10:58 am EST January 14, 2005

VESTAL, N.Y. -- A piece of sheep's brain from an anatomy class at a high school near Binghamton, New York, was taken out of the class and put in some salad dressing in the school cafeteria, according to officials.

Police are investigating Wednesday's food-tampering incident at Vestal High School. School officials said a student found the piece of brain at the bottom of a container of dressing at the salad bar.

Students used some of the dressing before the material was discovered, but officials say there's no evidence anyone ate any of the preserved brain matter, and no one has reported getting sick.

Parents were sent a letter informing them about the incident.

Health department officials say there wasn't enough preservative in the brain matter to cause health problems.


------------------------
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press.

Source

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Needles in McDonald's meal, woman claims

Files a lawsuit; says hospital removed 3 she swallowed
Friday, January 14, 2005

By Michaelangelo Conte
Journal staff writer

WEST NEW YORK - A North Bergen woman has filed a lawsuit against McDonald's, claiming she swallowed three inch-long needles while eating a Crispy Chicken Sandwich at a Bergenline Avenue restaurant.

Beatriz Bermeo spent three days at Palisades Medical Center, where the three needles were surgically removed from her digestive tract after she ingested them on Dec. 29 at the McDonald's near 60th Street, said her attorney, Rosemarie Arnold of Fort Lee.

"Lawyers get a bad rap, but the truth of the matter is it's people like me that force these companies to be a little bit more responsible, especially regarding McDonald's," Arnold said yesterday. "The lawsuits are the only reason they even consider being accountable to their consumers and customers about being safe."

Arnold would not say what sum she thinks would be fair compensation.

On the Dec. 29, Bermeo, her husband, Beethoven, their 2-year-old son Fernando, and her sister stopped at the McDonald's to let the child play in the indoor playground, Arnold said. When they found the playground closed, they sat down for a meal and Bermeo ordered the chicken sandwich, Arnold said.

Halfway through the sandwich, she felt pain in her mouth and esophagus, and, unable to speak, she began clutching her throat because she thought she was choking, Arnold said.

Her husband performed the Heimlich maneuver, but seeing she was still in distress, opened her mouth, saw two needles and pulled them out, Arnold said.

By then, someone had dialed 911 and police arriving at the restaurant rushed Bermeo to Palisades Medical Center, where surgeons removed three more pins from her digestive tract, Arnold said.

She left the hospital three days later, Arnold said, adding that the needles were similar to sewing needles, although they had no eyes for thread.

"They removed the three needles and she still has pain in her chest and stomach, so they think she still may have needles in her," Arnold said adding, "we have no idea how the needles got there, and McDonald's hasn't said anything."

Arnold said that since the incident Bermeo has said she cannot sleep or eat, has pain and "certainly she has emotional damage."

In response to questions about the incident, McDonald's e-mailed a statement from the owner of the franchise, George Gutierrez, who said an aggressive investigation into the incident was launched immediately.

"My restaurant manager and crew employees are highly trained and qualified in safety and sanitation procedures," Gutierrez said in the statement.

"We have no reason to believe that this object came from our restaurant and the object in question is not something that is used in our restaurant. I strongly caution anyone from jumping to conclusions or making assumptions before knowing all the facts."

Gutierrez said the safe operation of his restaurant and the safety of his customers is his highest priority.

Arnold said her firm is the state's most successful in food adulteration suits. She's won suits on things from a pencil found in a donut, to a worm found in a jar of spaghetti sauce, she said.

"Oh God, there are so many," she said.

West New York police are also conducting an investigation into the incident and are "looking into all aspects" of what happened at the McDonald's, said Police Capt. Robert Antolos yesterday.

Source

 

[dandare29]

I once found a small rusty nail in a bagel I was eating. I didn't swallow it because the bite I took tasted funny -- must have been the rust -- and I looked at the bagel.

I brought it back to the shop and they gave me a $5 credit for future purchases. I didn't create a scene because the other 500 times I'd been there the bagels were good. I never bought the pumpernickel ones again though.

You know, it could have been much, much worse -- like finding a toe in your chewing tobacco (I heard such a story once). Much, much worse . . .

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Yummy:

Human tooth found in Italian pizza

Fri Jan 21, 2005 09:25 AM GMT


ROME (Reuters) - An Italian restaurant that sold a pizza with a human tooth baked into the crust has been fined nearly $4,000 (2,137 pounds) for a lack of hygiene.

"It's insanity," cried defence lawyer Massimiliano Manzo, who represented the Florence pizzeria.

"How is the owner of the pizzeria going to force employees to go to the dentist every day or strap a lid over their mouths?" he told Reuters by telephone.

The unidentified client discovered the tooth while chewing a mouthful of pizza in December 2000. He paid the bill, but refused a complimentary supper to patch things over and instead took legal action.

The owner of the tooth was never identified and Manzo refused to discuss how it got into the pizza in the first place.

The lawyer said he would appeal.

--------------------
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Source

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

'Copycat' charged in McD's scheme

Cops say man placed objects in sandwich, then claimed injury

Thursday, January 20, 2005
By Michaelangelo Conte
Journal staff writer

WEST NEW YORK - A Cliffside Park man has been charged with cutting his own mouth with a razor and stuffing his McDonald's chicken sandwich with staples and a paper clip in an apparent copycat attempt to cash in with a lawsuit against the company, officials said.

The incident follows a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Beatriz Bermeo of North Bergen against the same Bergenline Avenue McDonald's, in which she claims she ingested five needles that were inside her chicken sandwich.

At about 2 p.m. Tuesday, West New York police arrested Jose Rodriguez, 48, and charged him with supplying a false report to law enforcement and tampering with or fabricating evidence, Capt. Robert Antolos said.

Police responding to a call of someone biting into a sandwich containing a sharp object arrived at the McDonald's to find Rodriguez bleeding from the mouth, Antolos said.

Rodriguez had created a scene in the restaurant, showing other customers and police the sandwich, which had staples and a paper clip protruding from it, Antolos said.

Rodriguez was taken to Palisade Medical Center while police began an investigation in which "evidence was recovered at the scene indicating that this new incident was nothing but a scam," Antolos said.

The investigation revealed that Rodriguez ordered a chicken sandwich and took it into the restroom, where he bit into it and spit the portion out into the garbage, Antolos said.

He then placed a row of staples and a bent paper clip into the middle of the sandwich and rewrapped it, Antolos said.

Finally, he took out a razor blade and used it to cut the inside of his mouth before discarding the blade in the garbage, Antolos said.

Rodriguez then walked back into the restaurant, sat down at a table and faked biting the sandwich before pretending to have been cut, Antolos said.

Armed with the evidence, police visited Rodriguez at the hospital and gave him another chance to say what happened, but he gave them the same story, Antolos said.

They then showed him the evidence against him and he admitted he had fabricated the story, Antolos said.

Rodriguez was arrested and his fingerprints and mug shot were taken in the hospital before he was released on his own recognizance to receive treatment for the cut in his mouth, which was serious enough to require stitches, Antolos said.

He said the investigation leading to Rodriguez's arrest used procedures put in place at the restaurant in consultation with police in the aftermath of the Bermeo incident.

Antolos would not comment on whether video security cameras were employed. The case against Rodriguez is to be presented to a grand jury.

Bermeo's lawsuit alleges that on Dec. 29 she was in the restaurant when she bit into a sandwich and pain shot through her, said her attorney, Rosemarie Arnold of Fort Lee.

Bermeo clutched at her throat, thinking she was choking, and her husband opened her mouth, saw two needles stuck in her, and pulled them out, Arnold said.

Bermeo was taken to Palisades Medical Center, where three more needles were surgically removed from her digestive tract, Arnold said, adding that Bermeo spent three days in the hospital before her release. She is suing McDonald's for an unspecified sum, Arnold said.

A criminal investigation is actively being pursued into all aspects of the Bermeo incident, Antolos said yesterday. Antolos credited Detectives Ed Monty, Ray Hernandez and Victor Martinez for the teamwork that led to a quick determination of what happened on Tuesday.

"Hopefully this will stem any copycat crimes," Antolos said.

Source

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

It is rather a step up from gobbing in someone's burger :shock:

Busted for putting glass in cop's burger

BY ADAM LISBERG and JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


When a veteran cop bit into his dinner from a Bronx McDonald's, he realized he was given a decidedly un-Happy Meal - his Big Mac was stuffed with shards of glass.

As the K-9 unit cop was rushed to the hospital with cuts to his mouth and throat and a broken tooth, a cop-hating fast-food cook was arrested, police said yesterday.

"Tampering with food in a case like this is an assault as sure as an attack with a knife or a gun," said an outraged Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association.

The 39-year-old cop, a 17-year veteran of the NYPD, had stopped at the McDonald's at 875 Garrison Ave. at 11:30p.m. Saturday to pick up a dinner while he took his NYPD dog for exercise on Randalls Island, police sources said.

He ordered the $5.19 Extra Value Meal No.1. When he bit into the Big Mac, he hit glass.

Coughing blood, he called for help and was treated at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, police said.

Hours later, a sting operation was cooked up to catch the culprit, sources said. As a marked police car used the McDonald's drive-through, an undercover cop inside the restaurant saw Albert Garcia, 18, spit in his sandwich, the sources said.

Garcia was arrested and later confessed to planting the glass after deciding he "wanted to hurt someone" that day, the sources said.

The owner of the McDonald's, Juan Rodriguez, said in a statement that "the safety of my customers and my crew is top priority." But some of his customers were shocked yesterday by the news.

"That's crazy," said Jennifer Torres, 18, as she held her 2-year-old nephew's hand. "I'm not going to eat there no more."


----------------
Originally published on January 31, 2005

Source

 

[Leaferne]

Recall for tainted chocolate milk
Last Updated Feb 1 2005 09:13 AM EST
CBC News

TORONTO – A recall has been issued for one-litre cartons of chocolate milk that health officials say may contain a chemical sanitizer.

The recall applies to one-litre cartons of Sealtest chocolate milk bearing the expiry date FE 07.

The milk was manufactured by Natrel in Toronto and distributed throughout Ontario.

Toronto Police issued a warning when a 29-year-old man fell ill after drinking from a carton of the milk on Monday.

He was hospitalized, but is expected to make a full recovery.

The man drank from a carton that was filled with "a clear liquid with a strong odour," police said in a statement.

However, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned that other cartons bearing the FE 07 expiry date might also be contaminated, even though the milk inside them may look and smell normal.

It cautioned all consumers against buying or drinking the milk.

As of Monday, the CFIA had received eight complaints and two illness reports related to the tainted milk, said Garfield Balsom, a food safety officer based in Ottawa.

Balsom said most of the reports came from eastern Ontario.

More information is available from the CFIA information line at 1-800-442-2342.

Source

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Woman finds penis in tomato sauce bottle

February 13 2005 at 05:50PM

Stockholm - A Swedish woman said on Sunday that she had found a penis in a bottle of ketchup.

Viktoria Ed said she was lucky enough to discover the organ before putting the sauce on her bread rolls, unlike her husband Stefan and their children, Madeleine and Simon.

"It looked like a penis, of an adult if it's human, and medium sized," she said.

"It's disgusting. The top of the bottle was intact, as if it had just left the factory. We would like to know how this thing ended up in a ketchup bottle."

The Godegaarden brand ketchup was made in Turkey and distributed in Sweden by the company Axfood. The shop where the ketchup was bought on Friday has thrown out the rest of its stock.

"I will never buy this brand again, it's finished," vowed Ed.

Police have taken the object for analysis.

Source

 

[Timble2]

Woman finds penis in tomato sauce bottle

February 13 2005 at 05:50PM

Stockholm - A Swedish woman said on Sunday that she had found a penis in a bottle of ketchup.

Heinz are doing that promotion "Heinz Tomato Ketchup. You can't eat without it."...........

A copycat campaign?

 

[Leaferne]

:shock: Visions of a particularly nasty industrial accident spring to mind, and frankly I wish they wouldn't.

 

[Anonymous]

Like, eww...

The guy should have stuck with 'conventional' cyber sex.

But how could this go un-reported? Uh, boss.. could you please call an ambulance? I just tried to hump the juicer.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Report of mouse in burger is probed

By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | February 25, 2005

Jeanne Mancuso, finishing up her lunch, said she wasn't worried. She orders salads. Tom, polishing off a burger in his delivery truck, was calm. He checks his patties when he removes the pickles.

Inside and outside the busy McDonald's in Downtown Crossing yesterday, the topic was more fiercely debated than the choice between a Filet-O-Fish and a Chicken McGrill.

Did a customer on Wednesday at the Washington Street McDonald's chomp into a mouse that had been cooked into the patty of his Quarter Pounder with cheese? Or was this yet another chapter in the anthology of urban legends about tiny mammals battered, deep-fried, and chargrilled by fast-food outlets?

No one seemed to know, not McDonald's corporate spokeswoman, regulars at the eatery, or the city Inspectional Services Department, which launched an investigation yesterday.

One thing was certain, though: It was going to take more than a mouse to scare away the devoted among McDonald's customers.

''I don't believe it," said Dorothy, who was sipping a coffee at the McDonald's yesterday and didn't want her last name printed. ''Somebody's trying to pull somebody's leg," she said.

The incident began Wednesday about 2 p.m., when a customer, identified by city officials as Frantz James Jean-Louise, sat down with a female companion, bit into a Quarter Pounder, and screamed that he had found a mouse, said Sal Napoli, owner and operator of the McDonald's. Jean-Louise, who could not be located for comment yesterday, stormed out of the restaurant, vowing to alert news media, according to Napoli.

Yesterday he went to City Hall. Jean-Louise walked into the Inspectional Services Department and produced a plastic bag containing the burger, said ISD spokeswoman Lisa Timberlake.

She could not describe what it looked like or whether it seemed credible. ''We will turn that sample over to the state lab for analysis," she said. ''It was in the wrapper. We don't analyze it, so nobody really looked at it."

Inspectors at the restaurant yesterday found a variety of what Timberlake described as minor violations and gave the franchise until March 3 to fix the problems. Among the violations, she said, were rodent droppings in the storage room, rust around a grease trap, and holes in a loading dock wall. An inspection a month ago was mostly good, she said.

Brigitte Walsh, a McDonald's spokeswoman, said she did not know whether a rodent had been discovered in the burger and that the company hoped to conduct its own analysis of the meat.

''We are looking into this claim, however, we have no reason to believe that this allegation has anything to do with this restaurant," said Susan Pingeton, marketing manager for McDonald's regional office, in a statement e-mailed by Walsh. ''McDonald's adheres to the most stringent food safety and quality control standards in the industry, and we are confident in the quality of the food we serve as well as in the cleanliness of our restaurant operations."

-------------------
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

Source