Glass shard in food take-out, what would you do?

[lilnymphie]

So we ordered take-out tonight. Half way in our meal, we discovered a glass shard a little smaller than a quarter inside. This is disturbing on many levels. First you wonder where this shard came from, where's the rest of the glass? Then you imagine what if you had been a messy eater and had just shoved food into your mouth, you would have shoved the glass in and possibly bitten it.

I emailed the company. I'm not going to post their name since perhaps they have some very good reason for it happening, or they will do something to rectify it. But I'm just curious, what would you do? The glass was quite thick. I'm thinking perhaps the glass fell on the floor and broke, and at the same time the food fell on the floor, and when someone was sweeping back up the food to reserve it (ick), they swept up glass too?? Otherwise I have no idea.

[jcon]

You emailed them???


Get on the phone with them. Geez, you were not hurt but what about other customers? They may not know they have a problem. Get an explanation from them.

[lilnymphie]

Well we had guests over and we hadn't wanted to stop the dinner gathering to complain. My guest just left, and the company is now closed so my only immediate recourse is to email them. I was tempted to have my partner immediately drive back since we kept the take out, but I realized the store would have been closed by the time he got there.

Yeah one of my first thoughts was to wonder where the rest of the glass shards were - other people may have them in their food too.

[jcon]

So what exactly are you asking...

Could it have been an accident? Sure.
Could it be an isolated incident? Sure.
Could it be a systemic problem? Sure.
Could someone have glass in their food right now? Sure.

[biee]

Remember to take pictures!!

[AudiDude]

Tell them you got glass in your mouth...

http://aproposofnothing.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/martini_glass_mouth.jpg

[sandikosh]

Well we had guests over and we hadn't wanted to stop the dinner gathering to complain. My guest just left, and the company is now closed so my only immediate recourse is to email them. I was tempted to have my partner immediately drive back since we kept the take out, but I realized the store would have been closed by the time he got there.

Yeah one of my first thoughts was to wonder where the rest of the glass shards were - other people may have them in their food too.

Are you saying that you let the guests keep eating the food? Maybe that is why you couldn't find the other pieces!

[lilnymphie]

No no, of course we immediately stopped eating the food. I thought it would be awkward to stop the evening's activities, so I didn't immediately get to complain. I've kept the take out and glass. And my question here is what you guys would have done.

[n-ster]

dangerous stuff... maybe there were tiny glass shards you ingested and that could destroy the inside of your body!

I would have taken picture and called the company ASAP and basically flip... I would seriously consider legal action and I would make sure that in the following week everyone felt OK

The next day I'd be bringing the food back to the store to show to the manager and demand that he call someone superior to him to see what they could do for me.

[jason9945]

Watch out for your ah noose if you accidentally ingested it, its going to be a ripper on the way out!

[SeeYouNextTime]

i once had a needle/fine nail embedded into the middle of a loaf of bread. I actually had the bread toasted and put creamcheese on it and bit into it, but the needle didn't lodge out of the slice; it was sticking out. I immediately called the 1 800 number and a local rep came by the next day to take the slice of bread and the rest of the loaf away and do some "testing". Of course, they came back to me and said it wasn't any fault of their manufacturing etc etc cuz they pass all their products through a metal detector, etc etc. They essentially put the blame on the delivery and end of line sale (ie the supermarket) for the alleged tampering. I ended up getting a gift card for more of their product, but that's about it.

As for suing: long, messy, costly, etc. I didn't go that route. besides, who to sue? everyone will deny guilt.

[originalnutta]

I found a few pieces of broken plastic which looked like glass in one of my smoothies from a well known coffee company. I won't mention any names, but i did spend a lot of bucks on this smoothie.

I dunno how many of these small pieces i ingested, but i managed to find at least 5 or six small bits in the bottom of the cup. I went back and we couldn't figure out where it came from since the blender wasn't chipped. We assumed it was from the bag of powder mix, so they just tossed that bag. I told them just to make sure that the next order doesn't have stuff in it because the next customer might be a bigger jerk and try to sue.

I got a $20 GC out of the deal, small price to pay for a possible GI laceration.

[amz155]

Bring it to the attention of the food premise. I'm sure they would like to know.

Also, if you want, you could file a complaint with the health department. That will trigger a complaint investigation which may or may not result in them figuring out where the glass came from (likely not). However, the investigation will take place long after the incident so the inspector will likely not find anything and will just tell the premise to be more vigilant for broken equipment and foreign objects.

[Skully]

did they charge u xtra for it?????? u may have got a good deal if they didnt:cheesygri

[lilnymphie]

They did respond today to the email I sent yesterday and they did seem to want to deal with it as soon as possible. I was out all day and need to be out all day tomorrow. I'll certainly continue discussing this with the company and keep you guys updated!

[slowtyper]

Happened to me once before as well. I didn't do anything about it...was too lazy or forgot.

[jordanr19871]

They did respond today to the email I sent yesterday and they did seem to want to deal with it as soon as possible. I was out all day and need to be out all day tomorrow. I'll certainly continue discussing this with the company and keep you guys updated!

so instead of taking 3 mins to call them to let them investigate that night they now have to wait 3 days for you to reply to find the possible source? :facepalm:

[SongforaFriend]

so instead of taking 3 mins to call them to let them investigate that night they now have to wait 3 days for you to reply to find the possible source? :facepalm:
OP doesn't have any obligations to the company. He or she was the one who brought it to their attention and shouldn't have to inconvenience him/herself to tell them what they did wrong.

[lilnymphie]

They had a questionnaire for me to fill out, and since I hadn't been home and online, I couldn't fill it in until I got home Sat. night. They replied back Sunday, but their reply was nonsensical, just said, "Guest will get e-card". I haven't gotten anything else, and more importantly, they didn't explain why this incident happened. I contacted their service centre again to let them know that I'm interested in learning about why this happened so I can feel safe eating their food again. I told them they can come pick up the take out food and inspect it, but they didn't reply.

Thanks for the interest. I am not going to sue or anything, and really just wanted to bring it to their attention. I was just curious what RFDers have done or would do have done in this situation.