Five Categories Of Food Injuries

Food injuries can occur in multiple ways; not every food injury case is as a result of food that has gone bad. Here are five classic ways in which restaurants can harm their patrons with food:

Foreign Hard Objects in the Food

Any foreign object in food is always a potential cause of serious injury. It doesn't even matter whether the foreign object is also considered food or not. For example, a hard shell in a bowl of soup can cause choking injuries, sharp objects such as razor blades can lacerate your mouth or throat and hard objects such as pebbles can crack or even dislodge your tooth.

Contaminations by Nonfood Objects

Sometimes nonfood items find their way into restaurant food and cause injuries to the public. These are usually poisonous chemicals that should never be included in human food. For example, when cleaning agents or pesticides find their way into restaurant food, they can cause serious cases of poisoning in those who eat the food.

Allergens in the Food

Even perfectly healthy food may have dangerous health effects on those who are allergic to it or some of its ingredients. For example, some people are allergic to peanuts, so they will experience allergy symptoms when they eat food that has been prepared with peanuts even though the same food will have no bad effect on those who aren't allergic to peanuts.

Contamination from Sick Employees

Sick restaurant employees aren't supposed to handle food because germs can jump from their bodies and contaminate the food, and make other people sick. For example, a server suffering from influenza handles food, they can easily pass the virus to other people. Unfortunately, this sometimes happens when a sick employed doesn't know they are sick, fails to disclose their illness or is coerced into work by their employer.

Contamination from Other Foods

It's ironical that food can even be contaminated by other foods. This typically happens when food that is meant to be eaten raw is prepared by the same utensils used to prepare food meant for cooking. For example, when a restaurant employee uses the same knife to cut meat and apples (after a perfunctory wiping), germs can be transferred from the meat to the apples, causing injury to those who end up eating the apples.

It doesn't matter whether you were injured by a foreign object or a disease causing microorganism. You should be able to get your compensation if you can prove that the restaurant was negligent in its handling of the food and that is why you were injured.

Contact a personal injury lawyer for more information.