Bakery Customer Sustains Serious Injuries From Ingesting Foreign Object in Pastry

Case Overview

This case involves a plaintiff in Oklahoma who became severely ill after ingesting a piece of metal wire that had been baked inside of a cheese danish. The plaintiff had purchased the danish from a bakery, where the pastry’s wrapper was noted to be intact at the time of purchase. The man noticed small pieces of metal in the pastry after he had consumed half of it, and began to experience severe gastrointestinal pain a few hours later. It was discovered that the man had suffered a significant gastric perforation, which required multiple surgeries to correct and resulted in a massive infection.

Questions to the Restaurant expert and their responses

Please describe your experience in food safety as it relates to this setting.

As an academic I instruct on food service or food product industry management's roles in food preparation to eliminate the 3 types of food borne hazards: biological, chemical and most relevant to this case, physical hazards. As a risk management professional and private consultant, I provide technical guidance on identifying and eliminating potential liabilities to clients' products and operational procedures. This industry can opt to use a myriad of technologies and techniques to detect and remove unintended contaminants from the food supply including magnetic mechanisms and metal detection, as well as and various radiography technologies. Common breakdowns can occur at any point along the flow of the product from production to retail plating / service. Within the scope of a food safety professor for past 15 years, I have lectured on prevention of contaminants and controls of potentially injurious physical hazards in foods including metal objects.

About the expert

This expert has over 17 years of experience in the field of Environmental and Occupational Heath. He earned his BS and MS in Environmental and Occupational Health at the California State University Northridge. He has numerous certifications for specialities in his field, including in Hazardous Materials Management, and as a Food Safety Professional. He previously served as an Environmental Health Specialist and a Program Specialist in the Risk Management Branch for the County of Los Angeles. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health at a university in California, as well as the Director of the Certified Food Protection Manager Program at two college in California. He has served as a Consultant for a Safety Regulatory Compliance Firm for the last 13 years.

E-101627

Specialties:

Restaurant