The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a man who nearly died after choking on a bone in his "boneless wings" should have expected bones to be in them. A state legislator is so outraged that he plans to change state law.
  • prime_number_314159@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    I think this is a good decision, and you always have to chew food for it to be safe, boneless or otherwise. There is no processing method (human or machine) that can reliably remove every bone or bone fragment, so the practical effect of the opposite outcome will be restaurants putting disclaimers that boneless products might contain bone.

    It will be no safer for consumers, and basically no different for restaurants, except this specific restaurant will be badly hurt by being the first one to have a customer incur significant medical expenses from this problem. It will just be the raw/undercooked warning part 2, and we will slowly work our way to a page of disclaimers in every menu.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      3 months ago

      Yeah, no. It’s clear you didn’t look at the actual situation. The bone in question was almost an inch and a half long.

      This wasn’t a small piece of bone, like a sliver or splinter or fragment like they keep wanting to refer to it. This was straight up just a bone the manufacturer didn’t remove. This is clear negligence regardless of what one bullshit judge says.

      Tiny pieces of bone will get through manufacturing. This isn’t that despite what they want to say. That characterization is bullshit on the level of the McDonald’s hot coffee propaganda.

      • prime_number_314159@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        There’s a lot of space between a food that’s dangerous to touch, and foods that require effort to eat safely.

        A warning that the coffee is hot isn’t enough to meaningfully disclose that the coffee will do severe damage if you touch it, while a disclaimer that boneless wings may contain bone fragments does enough to disclose that there may be bone fragments. Lots of other foods have bones and bone fragments, and are eaten in near perfect safety very frequently. There are no other foods routinely served so hot that they will cause burns, specifically because they are always unsafe.

        • SoylentBlake@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          Man idk, Im able to prepare my chicken, beef, pork or fish in a manner that ensures no bones slip thru. This can be especially trying with certain fish. But if I can do it, so can a company. If a company can’t figure out how to do that and sell it at a price point they want, maybe they just shouldn’t be selling that.

          We don’t see fugu on the shelves next to deli made California rolls. tragically

          • bane_killgrind@slrpnk.netEnglish
            1·
            3 months ago

            Yeah but you do it by hand, and the manufacturer of the boneless wings want to continue to do it in a cheap way with machinery.

            Do you really want them to spend more money? /S

      • FireTower@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        I agree with the overall idea, but this wasn’t one judge it was the majority (4-3).

        Even when all parties do the best we can reasonably expect on occasion a bone will slip through. But when that happens and someone suffers injury because of it they deserve restitution if they specifically ordered a boneless product.

        The court didn’t look at the breach of warranty claim. Which was probably the best argument in this case.

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          3 months ago

          You again seem to be ignoring the fact it wasn’t really a bone fragment. It was an inch and a half long bone piece. There are entire bone-in wings that size. That’s not something anyone would expect in a boneless wing.

          Is there a reason you seem to be intentionally ignoring that detail?

          • FireTower@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
            3·
            3 months ago

            Again? This is the first I’ve replied to you. I think you misunderstood my position.

            My only issue was with you claiming it was one judge not four.

  • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    While I agree that the ruling is pretty ridiculous, the guy sounds like a human vacuum and caused his own problems:

    He had cut up his wing into thirds, eating the first two pieces of it normally. On his third one, Berkheimer felt like something went down the wrong “pipe,” the court documents said…Doctors found a 1 and 3/8 inch chicken bone in his throat, one that tore open the wall of his esophagus.

    How the fuck do you not notice that you’re eating a nearly 1.5" (38mm) bone?! 1.5" is literally the length of the tong tine on a metal fork (I had laying around after typing up the above and measured it just for the hell of it haha) or probably a sewing needle.

    If there’s even the tiniest bit of gristle or something in my meat I immediately spit it out, dude straight up swallowed a freaking chicken bone.

    edit: apparently the human vacuums got offended by this. Put another way that’s like putting half a toothpick in your meat and then not noticing it in your mouth