Top food stories of 2005: #1 Food lawsuits that rain on our plates

by Nicole Weston, Posted Dec 31st 2005 @ 11:00AM

It's that time of year, the time to look back on the stories that made 2005 great. Our countdown began with God and TV, then touched on the weird and the wonderful. Finally, that most American of all themes: the lawsuit.

There are more than a few people out there who continue to give lawyers a bad name. Some of them are the lawyers who take on what many people deem to be frivolous lawsuits. Sometimes it is the lawyers who take it upon themselves to speak up for people and protest what they perceive is a legal violation or some sort. These may not be all the legal battles caused by food this year, but they certainly were noteworthy ones, whether they deserved to be or not.

1. Silver dragées. This lawsuit isn’t new to 2005, but it is ongoing nevertheless. A California lawyer had essentially managed, much to the chagrin of bakers in the state, to block the sale of little, silver cake decorating balls in the state in a suit against candy makers and bakers. He cites health risks despite the fact that there has never been a documented case of poisoning from silver dragée consumption.

2. Bottled Fly Trauma. In , a hairstylist and his wife were awarded more than $300,000 after finding a fly in a bottle of water. Neither the man nor his wife consumed any water and, in fact, the bottle was unopened. The couple mentioned that they were “plagued by nightmares [and lost] of their sense of humour” as a result of the incident.

3. Suing cereal makers. A woman in California filed a suit against major cereal makers for leading her to believe that their “low sugar” cereals were healthier than their regular cereals. She stated that the sugars were replaced with refined carbohydrates, and since the body processes these in the same way as sugars, the advertising that convinced her that these cereals were healthy was false and misleading. Cereal company spokespeople maintain that beyond a “low sugar” designation, they made no specific health claims about these products in addition to the fact that all the nutritional information is found on the label on the box.

4. Suing “big soda”. A group of lawyers, well known for their legal work against “big tobacco” companies, is preparing to file a lawsuit against soda makers for selling sodas in schools. It should be noted that the lawsuit does not yet have “the right set of parents [signed] on as plaintiffs”. The right set of parents would be able to convincingly present a case that their child was damaged by the availability of soda.

5. Dunkin donuts coffee burns. In the wake of the infamous McDonalds coffee burn lawsuit, a Staten Island woman has filed a $15 million dollar suit against Dunkin Donuts for second and third degree burns she claims to have sustained from an overly hot and improperly lidded coffee cup. It is unknown whether she is aware that the $3 million dollar fined imposed on McDonald’s was reduced to $480,000 after being deemed excessive by a judge.

6. Finger in custard. Though the finger in Wendy’s chili scandal did not result in a lawsuit, since the finder confessed to placing the finger in her chili, a North Carolina man did find a severed finger in his frozen custard. He is suing the Carvel Corporation for psychological trauma sustained after actually biting into the fingertip. Employees were searching for the fingertip, which belonged to their manager, when the custard was served.

7. Carcinogen warning for French fries. The California attorney general has filed a suit against the manufacturers of French fries and other fried potato products, stating a carcinogenic chemical is present in them and that warnings to consumers should be provided. The chemical, acrylamide, has been found to be present in almost all food, though it does appear in slightly higher amounts in fried potato products. Scientists have not yet determined whether acrylamide should be perceived as dangerous to humans despite the fact that it is a carcinogen, since animal tests exposed rats to 100,000 times the amount humans receive in occupational exposure.

Filed Under: Food Oddities, Trends, Newspapers, Lists, Did you know?, Ingredients, Drink Recipes
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