Public Servant Lifestyle

Restaurants can damage your health - if you're not careful. Sample some eating out horror stories.

Mouse Tails: Bread

Allied Bakeries, based in Staines, West London, is investigating after a couple said they found a dead mouse inside a loaf. Dave and Theresa Vint claim they found the mouse squashed between two slices of a Kingsmill loaf they bought from a supermarket. Mrs Vint told local newspaper, the East Anglian Daily Times: "I've had bugs in broccoli and caterpillars in lettuce but to think a mouse can get into an every day product like bread is horrendous."

Burgers

A Toronto family is suing McDonald's after claiming they found a rat head in a Big Mac in March this year. They say their nine-year-old daughter found the head "complete with eyes, teeth, nose and whiskers", just as she was about to bite. A lawsuit is claiming $17.5 million, for psychological injury. McDonald's lawyers have refused to comment.

Call The Police

A police officer claims she found a live mouse in a fried chicken meal she bought at a takeaway in Detroit, USA. Nedra Russell said she bought dinner for herself and her three children and found the mouse when she got home. "I just screamed and slammed the lid, the box down and shoved it all into a bag," she said.

Glowing Chicken

A North Carolina man says chicken leftovers started glowing after his family had eaten their dinner.
Johnail Fairley from Fayetteville said he was preparing to feed the leftovers to the dog when he saw a blue-green glow on the meat. He called the fire brigade, who suspect it was seasoned by sea salt containing chemicals that glow. Mr Fairley says his family don't use sea salt and adds officials are still trying to find out what caused the glow. The mystery of the glowing chicken has yet to be solved.

Here Comes The Science

Speaking of poultry, British scientists invented a self-disinfecting chicken in March this year. The birds are given special feed to rid them of harmful bugs that make people sick.

Eating Poison For Fun

Blowfish are considered a delicacy by culinary thrill-seekers, but they can be deadly. Blowfish ovaries, liver and intestines contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent the US Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death."

The Whole Tooth

A diner is suing a drive-through restaurant that he claims served him a sandwich roll with a tooth inside.
Ronald Cheeley, of Alamance, North Carolina, says staff at Hardee's laughed at him when he told them about the tooth in his bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. He claims the manager eventually fired the cook after he admitted it was his tooth.

Loo Roll Claims

An Australian family successfully claimed damages for food poisoning this year. The Raso family said that they spent £700 on extra toilet paper for their diarrhoea, after contracting food poisoning from pork. They were awarded £50,000 compensation.

Waiter, There's A Fly In My Sausage

A British chip shop boss was fined £10,000 for selling a jumbo sausage with a fly in it. Arthur Richardson, of Crispens, in South Wootton, near King's Lynn, was fined another £10,000 for ignoring a health and safety improvement notice.

Takeaway Trouble

People who eat fast food and takeaways are most at risk of getting food poisoning. One in five people aged between 26 and 35 suffered food poisoning in 2000, according to a survey by the Food Standards Agency.

Pubs, greasy-spoon cafes and Chinese and Indian takeaways top the list of places where food-safety standards are suspect. Mobile vans selling hot dogs, hamburgers and other snacks are also considered unsafe and are avoided by most people.

If you're thinking of eating out tonight, just remember that the Food Standards Agency also claim that almost half of the UK food premises were breaking food safety rules when they were inspected last year. So you've got a 50:50 chance. Bon appetit!

More information available in Dining Out, Humour