Woman sues restaurant chain after allegedly finding severed finger in salad
Topics: Food and Drink, Health, Mental Health, US News, Money, New York
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: Grace Cary/Getty Images/News 12
Topics: Food and Drink, Health, Mental Health, US News, Money, New York
A woman has filed a complaint against a salad restaurant after allegedly chomping down on her meal only to realise she was munching on part of a finger.
On Monday (27 November), Allison Cozzi from Greenwich, Connecticut filed a lawsuit against against salad restaurant chain Chopt - which has over 70 locations across the US.
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The lawsuit claims that Cozzi bought a salad from a branch of the store in Mount Kisco, New York on 7 April and was midway through eating it when she realised she was 'chewing on a portion of a human finger'.
The finger had been 'mixed into, and made a part of, the salad,' the lawsuit also alleges.
But who's finger was it?
Well, the lawsuit claims that the restaurant's manager is the one with a partly missing digit.
And the accidental severing allegedly took place when the manager was chopping arugula.
The manager then went to the hospital and the contaminated arugula was then served to customers, the lawsuit claims.
It's unclear how many other customers may have been affected by the contaminated arugula.
News12 reports that Westchester County Health department had investigated the incident, and issued a ticket for violating state rules for preventing health hazards and fined the Chopt branch $900.
According to NBC News, the restaurant didn't contest the fine and paid up.
However, Cozzi is now seeking damages, claiming she's been left with a whole host of 'serious personal injuries' as a result of chewing down on the finger part.
The plaintiff claims she's suffered from neck and shoulder pain, alongside nausea, dizziness, migraine, cognitive impairment and also panic attacks and shock.
It's not been released how much Cozzi is seeking in damages and the plaintiff will not be addressing the incident anymore than she already has, according to her lawyer Marc Reibman.
He told PEOPLE: "She does not want to increase the stress and anxiety that this incident has caused her.
"As required by New York Law, her Complaint does not contain the dollar amount of the monetary damages that she is seeking.
"As a matter of common sense and public interest, the failure to supervise the preparation and service of food in a manner that protects the public is a blatant deviation from accepted safe practice and deserves significant compensation."
UNILAD has contacted Chopt for comment.