Wendy's staff fingers counted as search continues for owner

proudmom

Sat, Mar 26 2005, 9:32 pm

(AP) - A woman bit into a partial finger served in a bowl of chili at California a Wendy's restaurant, leading authorities to a use a fingerprint database Thursday to determine who lost the digit.

A portion of a human finger that a woman says she found while eating a bowl of chili at Wendys Restaurant. (AP Photo/Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health)
The incident occurred Tuesday night at a San Jose Wendy's restaurant and left the customer ill and distraught, said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Health Department. "She was so emotionally upset once she found out what it was," Alexiou said.

"She was vomiting."

Employees at the Wendy's store were asked to show investigators their fingers after the Tuesday night incident. All employees' digits were accounted for, officials said, adding the well-cooked finger may have come from a food-processing plant that supplies the company.

"All of our employees have ten digits," said Denny Lynch, a spokesman for Wendy's International Inc., based in Dublin, Ohio.

He said there have been no reports to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration of injuries at any supplier of chili ingredients to Wendy's.

"By law, you can't hide that sort of stuff," Lynch said.

"All of our chili suppliers report no accidents."

Investigators seized the remaining chili and closed the restaurant for a few hours late Tuesday.

Health officials said the fingertip was approximately four centimetres long. They believe it belongs to a woman because of the long, manicured nail.

Alexiou said the woman who bit into the finger, who asked officials not to identify her, is at minimal risk of contracting illnesses from the finger.

"It's an extremely low chance because the chili was cooked at a very high temperature that would have killed anything in the finger," Alexiou said.

Still, she said health officials would ask the woman's doctor to test her blood "to make sure nothing got passed to her."

Tefila

Sat, Mar 26 2005, 11:11 pm

Gross

Trust me that would never ever happen in a kosher restauraunt, with a mashgiach and all, Baruch Hashem for the laws of kashrus!!

sarahd

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 2:45 am

Now, how likely do you think it is that someone lost a finger and hasn't realized yet? This is either a late Purim joke or an early April Fool's one.

Tefila

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 10:43 am

Quote:

This is either a late Purim joke or an early April Fool's one

Yeah if I can say something silly in this news thread Proud, then so can you right Very Happy

But oh I did believe it!
Thats my prob.... things I shouldn't believe I do, and things I should, I don't Rolling Eyes

Yael

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 1:24 pm

ohhhhh that is sooo grosss!
Mad

I hope its not true.

Leagal Eagal

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 2:42 pm

Freilich, I'll grant you that no HUMAN body part ever made it into kosher food, but would you be surprised to learn that RODENT waste products routinely make it into the kosher foods we eat? Further, there are documented incidents in which mashgichim were paid to look the other way.

Tefila

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 4:03 pm

Yep I have a book on kashrus and if only you knew what you were really eating even so called healthy stuff ! You would never want to binge again on anything EVER!

The fda requires to only list ingrediants which are a certain quantity or higher. Otherwise Restaurants etc would be out of buisness as of yesterday!!

E.G. Rodents hair in sugar since only a certain amount can be removed in the processing. But it's still kosher and fda standards ok for consumption since quantity is minute, but enough to make me sick to my stomach shock

Leagal Eagal

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 6:08 pm

Speaking of FDA requirements, I know that stringent mashgichim require the food manufacturers to list ingredients even if the product only contains a trace of that ingredient, not only for kashruth reasons, but also because there have been reports of people who died because they were allergic to certain foods, and the products they ate did not list those foods on the label because those foods were only there in "trace" form.

Tefila

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 6:26 pm

Talking about ingrediants. For purim we got nuts! Think it's planters can't remember now.
That said this may contain nuts or traces of nuts..... an american brand, only could happen in America Rolling Eyes

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 10:33 pm

As I understood the news story, the chili was made at a separate plant and was shipped to the fast food place.

Yes, it is pretty gross, but there is nothing to say that it can't happen in a kosher plant as well. There are plenty of companies that make frozen/ready made meals and a finger tip or some other nasty thing could end up in it. It would not necessarily be treif either, because of botel bshishim and other halachos.

Obviously, if the plant ( kosher or treif) was aware of this, they would probably recall certain batches of the product, but in this case they were not aware until it was too late.

ForeverYoung
Guest

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 11:00 pm

mp, some cool ligic here !!!

gross and yes, you really don't want to know what's in your food!!!

micki

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 11:08 pm

this is insane and gross. even if it was made in another plant, umm nobody noticed that hteir finger was missing? and gee when they did they didn't need medical attention? and wouldn't they be asked where do you work? this is insane.

imaamy

Sun, Mar 27 2005, 11:41 pm

I was just thinking about all the options--yes, the victim would need help but did someone like a supervisor let the finger get in the food to terrorize or get back at the company that produced the chili meat?