# Blade found in packet of crisps



## leelee (14 Aug 2008)

Can anyone advise what to do / who to call please.....

Nephew today bought pack of branded crisps today -sealed properly when bought. Half way through eating noticed a stanley blade inside the packet. Thankfully didn't get hurt and it was a younger child eating them that mayhave put in the mouth.  

His mother called the company straight away but fobbed off with "person who will deal with that is not here and will ring you".

Surely this whole brand may be dangerous and should be recalled - any advice who to ring about this please.


----------



## ClubMan (14 Aug 2008)

FSAI? Your solicitor? _Joe Duffy_?


----------



## ben101 (14 Aug 2008)

ray darcy or gerry ryan


----------



## ClubMan (14 Aug 2008)

ben101 said:


> ray darcy or gerry ryan


Yeah - but don't tell them that there's a blade in it before giving them the packet to eat.


----------



## leelee (14 Aug 2008)

Thank you - I just had total blank what to recommend to them.

Will get parents to get onto people this evening/tomorrow.

Shocked at the company not to respond urgently - it is an everyday brand and these were a corn snack crisp ie. ones you tend to buy for younger children.


----------



## g1g (14 Aug 2008)

oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is seriously worrying!!! I dread to think what might have happened to the child. I would definitely consult a solicitor on this one.  I would think you are going to be fobbed off by the company.


----------



## WaterSprite (14 Aug 2008)

I think drawing the company's attention to the potential (great) hazard and getting a satisfactory answer about that for the greater good is more important than making a bee-line for a solicitor - no one was hurt after all so, unless the crisp-eater has PTSD or the like, there's no damage.  It is important that the company in question takes this seriously however.

Sprite


----------



## Ash 22 (14 Aug 2008)

I would have thought the company would be very eager to respond immediately. Its being very silly on their end if they don't as the publicity they get won't look too good for them.


----------



## Newbie! (15 Aug 2008)

When we were kids, in the same year, my mam found a matchstick in a chocolate bar and a nail (the kind for hammering and not from your hand!) in a packet of soup. There were major major apologies from the companies concerned, several rather luxurious food hampers and a cash apology. I actually can't recall if they recalled the batches concerned.


----------



## Towger (15 Aug 2008)

Newbie! said:


> When we were kids, in the same year, my mam found a matchstick in a chocolate bar and a nail (the kind for hammering and not from your hand!) in a packet of soup. There were major major apologies from the companies concerned, several rather luxurious food hampers and a cash apology. I actually can't recall if they recalled the batches concerned.


 
We got much the same response years ago, when my mother found a magot/'Weevil' in a sliced pan. Last year I got a box of Knorr Quick Soup, 1 of the sachets was not sealed. I emailed 'Carelines.Livingonline@Unilever.com' and the only response I got was:
 
Your message
To: Carelines.Livingonline@Unilever.com
Subject: Knorr Quick Soup - Unsealed sachets
Sent: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 16:31:27 +0100
was read on Wed, 4 Apr 2007 16:30:53 +0100

and that was because I had sent the read receipt flag!


----------



## Sylvester3 (15 Aug 2008)

A stanley blade sounds like deliberate contamination, rather than a piece of machinery falling in during the packing process, so it is possible that the company's first response  is one of suspicion that this could be an attempt to defraud them of compensation of some kind. Stonewalling on initial enquiries of this nature may be a way of putting off such folk? 

Does anyone remember the woman who 'found' a finger in her chili in America and tried to get compensation, only to be done for fraud when it was determined that she had obtained the finger from a friend? I'm sure it must happen a lot! 

Needless to say, however, I am not saying that the OP's relative is involved in such chicanery!


----------



## S.L.F (15 Aug 2008)

Sylvester3 said:


> Does anyone remember the woman who 'found' a finger in her chili in America and tried to get compensation, only to be done for fraud when it was determined that she had obtained the finger from a friend?



The finger of suspicion.


----------



## rmelly (15 Aug 2008)

S.L.F said:


> The finger of suspicion.


 
Did the friend give her the finger?


----------



## ngwrbc (15 Aug 2008)

A simular type blade was found in a brand of cream cracker in a supermarket I worked in many moons ago, turns out the gang who packed the shelves used small blades to strip open boxes, the blade had come loose from the knife part and stuck into a packet of crackers, of course the young staff did not take any notice when the blade was missing, just got a new blade and continued until his job, the product was eventually sold and returned with blade, then investigated, no fault of manufacturer however was a long route until the above actual cause was determined at the time.

Not saying this is related to OP's issue, if the bag was sealed then it was sealed.
Thankfully it was spotted in time.


----------



## eileen alana (15 Aug 2008)

Sylvester3 said:


> Does anyone remember the woman who 'found' a finger in her chili in America and tried to get compensation, only to be done for fraud when it was determined that she had obtained the finger from a friend? I'm sure it must happen a lot!


 

How awful


----------



## sandrat (15 Aug 2008)

imagine you slice your finger off doing the gardening or something and your friend tells you to hold on to it cos it might be a way to get some compo.


----------



## Sylvester3 (15 Aug 2008)

A few more details about the chili finger case at snopes, the urban legend website. Note that this is a 'false' story in the sense that the woman did not find the finger in her chili but put it there herself - the article goes on to talk about what happened to the individuals involved in the fraud. It is very interesting, I think!


----------



## FredBloggs (15 Aug 2008)

Many moons ago when I was about 10 my aunt brought my brother and myself to a hotel for lunch.   I had eaten half my mashed potato when I bit on something hard.  I spat it out - it was a screw.  Digging into my mashed potato I found varous bits of machinery which transpired to be from the hotels electrical potato cleaner.   My aunt called over the restaurant manager and told him I had nearly choked to death.  He whipped up the plate and disappeared with it.  I got no replacement dinner and the hotel tried charging my aunt with my dinner. she succeded im getting this charge discounted but I'm sure these days the very least you'd get is free meal for all and a grovelling apology


----------



## ClubMan (15 Aug 2008)

sandrat said:


> imagine you slice your finger off doing the gardening or something and your friend tells you to hold on to it cos it might be a way to get some compo.


OK - I'm imagining that. What do I do next?


----------



## truthseeker (15 Aug 2008)

FredBloggs said:


> Many moons ago when I was about 10 my aunt brought my brother and myself to a hotel for lunch.   I had eaten half my mashed potato when I bit on something hard.  I spat it out - it was a screw.  Digging into my mashed potato I found varous bits of machinery which transpired to be from the hotels electrical potato cleaner.   My aunt called over the restaurant manager and told him I had nearly choked to death.  He whipped up the plate and disappeared with it.  I got no replacement dinner and the hotel tried charging my aunt with my dinner. she succeded im getting this charge discounted but I'm sure these days the very least you'd get is free meal for all and a grovelling apology



Afraid not, in Heathrow airport I was having a salad in some diner place and when I was halfway through a caterpillar came trudging out from under the leaf where he'd been sharing my salad and meandered across the plate. I brought plate discreetly to waiter who first went white and looked ill and then just arrived back at my table with brand new (and much more obviously washed) salad. I was charged for original meal.

In saying that a caterpillar is more than likely a far less dangerous object than bits of metal - though he could have been poisonous I suppose.


----------



## gabsdot (15 Aug 2008)

Years ago my husbands cousin found a runner band in a packet of crisps. His mother rang tayto and a box of goodies soon arrived by way of apology. A few weeks later the cousin was overheard by his mother telling his friend he was going to 'put another rubber band in a packet of crisps, coz we got loads of goodies the last time I did it'


----------



## FredBloggs (15 Aug 2008)

truthseeker said:


> Afraid not, in Heathrow airport I was having a salad in some diner place and when I was halfway through a caterpillar came trudging out from under the leaf where he'd been sharing my salad and meandered across the plate. I brought plate discreetly to waiter who first went white and looked ill and then just arrived back at my table with brand new (and much more obviously washed) salad. I was charged for original meal.
> 
> In saying that a caterpillar is more than likely a far less dangerous object than bits of metal - though he could have been poisonous I suppose.


 
To paraphrase an old joke its better you found a catepillar in your salad than half a catapillar.


----------



## ClubMan (16 Aug 2008)

gabsdot said:


> Years ago my husbands cousin found a runner band in a packet of crisps. His mother rang tayto and a box of goodies soon arrived by way of apology. A few weeks later the cousin was overheard by his mother telling his friend he was going to 'put another rubber band in a packet of crisps, coz we got loads of goodies the last time I did it'


I'm sure that many of us fantasized about such a scheme/scam when we were kids. I know that I did. Never followed through though.


----------



## Caveat (16 Aug 2008)

ClubMan said:


> I'm sure that many of us fantasized about such a scheme/scam when we were kids. I know that I did. Never followed through though.


 

A friend did (aged about 10/11) and it didn't work - the first (genuine) incident involved a chip of wood in a well known soft centred chocolate product - the hamper and apologetic letter arrived swiftly of course.

Maybe responded a bit too enthusiastically and dramatically with the follow up 'complaint' (a ball bearing, a week later, same company) and AFAIK the response letter was a fairly curt, sceptical, dismissive one which all but called him a liar - which of course he was.


----------



## Elphaba (17 Aug 2008)

I sliced the very tips off two fingers when I worked in the deli of dunnes stores as a teenager. Ironically, a Fish Fingers rep brought me to the meath hospital in his van. A week later this guy arrived to the house, got me to sign something and a week later I got a cheque for 7 pounds comp. in the post. I couldn't play the piano for months.

Leelee, I hope you get some recompense from company in question.


----------



## DeclanP (17 Aug 2008)

leelee said:


> Can anyone advise what to do / who to call please.....
> 
> Nephew today bought pack of branded crisps today -sealed properly when bought. Half way through eating noticed a stanley blade inside the packet. Thankfully didn't get hurt and it was a younger child eating them that mayhave put in the mouth.
> 
> ...



Environmental Health Officers attached to your local HSE would be very interested in this and would take action. It would be much the same as finding a blade in food served in a restaurant. This should be done in the absence of any response from the company. It is a very serious issue.


----------

