On Monday (Nov 27), a Connecticut lady filed a complaint against the fast-casual salad company Chopt after she allegedly devoured a severed human finger while eating her salad. Allison Cozzi, the woman, had purchased a salad at the chain’s Mount Kisco location in New York in April of this year. The suit claims she discovered a portion of the manager’s finger in the dish. “She realized she was chewing on a portion of a human finger that had been mixed into and made a part of, the salad,” the suit stated. According to the lawsuit, the manager allegedly sliced off her left pointer finger while cutting arugula with a knife.
The tainted arugula was blended into a salad and served to many diners, according to the lawsuit
While the manager was brought to a nearby hospital for treatment, the tainted arugula was blended into a salad and served to many diners, including Cozzi, according to the lawsuit. It was unclear whether or not the tainted salad was served to additional customers. Cozzi said that the encounter left her with cognitive impairment, dizziness, nausea, panic episodes, shock, migraine, and neck and shoulder soreness. According to Westchester County health records, the Chopt eatery was previously penalized $900. This is not the first time a food chain has been sued in the United States this year for providing tainted foods. In August, Olive Garden was sued when a customer claimed to have found a rat’s foot in his minestrone soup.
NPR cited prior incidents, such as a 14-year-old finding a finger in an Arby’s sandwich in 2012, and a 2006 event at TGI Friday’s where a diner discovered a finger in his burger, which had been mistakenly put there by a kitchen employee who cut his finger. In 2004, David Scheiding of Ohio filed a $50,000 lawsuit after discovering “a piece of flesh about three-fourths of an inch long” in his sandwich.