Found a tooth in my lunch!!!

bogtrotting_boy

Hi all,

On May 28, I found a human tooth in my foccacia bread (after I bit into it :eek:) from a well know UK high street supermarket. Not sure if I'm allowed to name and shame.

I complained, filled in the paper work, handed over the receipt and tooth etc and heard nothing for 12 weeks. I reminded the manager, who promised a fast response. Again, nothing until I went in again and complained a second time to him. Yet, again, nothing until I went in again and complained a third time to him. On a 4th visit, I was finally helped out by a brilliant assistant manager who told me the tooth (aka a foreign body) had gone missing.

I got a letter 2 weeks ago with a 15 sterling gift voucher. I called the Customer Service department and said that a sterling voucher wasn't of much use to me and that I was seriously pi***d off with the awful handling of the case. I was promised a review of my case.

Today I got a letter with a 10 sterling gift voucher and some platitudes about how my issue had been reported to the management team, how they were very sorry etc etc.

Not meaning to sound like a money-grabber, but I'd guess that 25 quid is not much for finding a body part in my lunch and I'd like to get your views on it.

Top Marks to anyone who can help me out here...

Nauesated of city centre.

kmick

If you really wanted some cash you should have hung on to the tooth and contacted your solicitor. You might have got a couple of grand. As it stands you could still get the solicitor to write them a letter but seeing as you suffered no 'Physical' injuries I'm not sure what you would achieve.

Take your 25 euro and spend it wisely.
Perhaps I could recommend some tooth care products...

minxie

you should have contacted the food safety authority...
still drop them a letter or an e-mail, worth a shot....

ejmaztec

bogtrotting_boy wrote: »

Hi all,

On May 28, I found a human tooth in my foccacia bread (after I bit into it :eek:) from a well know UK high street supermarket. Not sure if I'm allowed to name and shame.

I complained, filled in the paper work, handed over the receipt and tooth etc and heard nothing for 12 weeks. I reminded the manager, who promised a fast response. Again, nothing until I went in again and complained a second time to him. Yet, again, nothing until I went in again and complained a third time to him. On a 4th visit, I was finally helped out by a brilliant assistant manager who told me the tooth (aka a foreign body) had gone missing.

I got a letter 2 weeks ago with a 15 sterling gift voucher. I called the Customer Service department and said that a sterling voucher wasn't of much use to me and that I was seriously pi***d off with the awful handling of the case. I was promised a review of my case.

Today I got a letter with a 10 sterling gift voucher and some platitudes about how my issue had been reported to the management team, how they were very sorry etc etc.

Not meaning to sound like a money-grabber, but I'd guess that 25 quid is not much for finding a body part in my lunch and I'd like to get your views on it.

Top Marks to anyone who can help me out here...

Nauesated of city centre.

You'd have got less from the tooth-fairy, so I think you did quite well.

Mr. Incognito

Your point being what?

They didn't give me enough compensation?

Well tough.

However if you are genuuinely worried about health and safety you could of course place a call to the food authority or health and safety to raise your concerns with them and have it investigated so this doesn't happen to someone else..............

However me thinks it's about the money isn't it.

Morlar

I would name and shame. If they are slinging around £25 in vouchers I dont think they are treating it very seriously.

Its hard to understand why a memeber of staff preparing food would accidentally lose a tooth without noticing so it sounds to me like it could be a case of tampering with food - and god knows what else is going on there. I would name and shame and report them also. Their response doesnt sound like they are treating it very seriously.

LolaDub

Name and shame and report them. I'd reply to the company letting them know you did this and maybe give conor pope from pricewatch an email about it too. Perhaps they'll learn to better handle the cases in future

Cabaal

£25 is 31e, could have been alot less
At this stage it comes across as if you money grabbing, if it concerned you that much you should have reported it to the food safety board, you would have likely got nothing but atleast your safety concerns would have been dealt with

bogtrotting_boy

Hi all,

thanks for your input.

I didn't report it to Food Safety or anyone else as I wanted to give the shop time to respond. There's no point in trying to beat them up if they haven't been given reasonable time to come back to me. This point has been reached and I have no faith in the shop to deal with it properly, given how badly it was handled.

As regards the 30 odd euros I got, probably better than a poke in the eye, but I needed your reactions and comments to help me gauge whether this was enough for finding one of someone elses teeth in my lunch. Clearly it must be.

axer

bogtrotting_boy wrote: »

Hi all,

thanks for your input.

I didn't report it to Food Safety or anyone else as I wanted to give the shop time to respond. There's no point in trying to beat them up if they haven't been given reasonable time to come back to me. This point has been reached and I have no faith in the shop to deal with it properly, given how badly it was handled.

As regards the 30 odd euros I got, probably better than a poke in the eye, but I needed your reactions and comments to help me gauge whether this was enough for finding one of someone elses teeth in my lunch. Clearly it must be.

The question is what were you hoping to get out of this? Were you looking for an apology or what? What should they be doing differently?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

No harm done, no medical bills, no psychological damage, no missed work therefore you have no entitlement to compensation. What they did give you was a good-will gesture.

Just report them to Food Safety and they will investigate.

bogtrotting_boy

Thanks Sean K! That's probably the best way to sum it up and close this. I was happy to receive something from the shop, but I guess I was more annoyed at being fobbed off and really felt like my case had not been professionally handled by them.

Case closed.

Mr. Presentable

It should probably be stickied, but anyone who finds a foreign object in their food should submit a photo to the supplier and keep the offending item in case it would be "lost".

The Bollox

is this the new 'ring in the Halloween Brack'?

tbh I would have been mortified to have found a bodypart in something I was eating. I wouldn't expect compensation but I would have appreciated a letter informing me they were going to use more strict heigene rules in the future and a thanks for pointing this out. Also no word after 12 weeks is very bad on the shops part

LolaDub

It seems pretty obvious that the shop handled the complaint badly. What was your reaction to find it, were you disgusted or did you punch the air shouting yes i'll make a few quid out of this. . There is no valid reason to expect to make money out of it, because it happened in friends doesn't mean it happens in real life. I think the real issue is the tooth and how horrible it is to find it in your food, the only course of action there is to complain to both shop and food safety. Food safety would follow it up and insist that the shop take it seriously. Of course 30 quid isn't much by way of compensation for finding bodyparts in your food but this isn't compensation, its just goodwill

Clytus

Have to say...its an unusual one that.

Did the store give you a full explanation as to how a tooth found its way into a bread?

Did the store have the tooth sent to a lab to see if it was real..as oppossed to a lost denture.

Im finding it difficult to understand, how someone could lose a tooth on a line and not notice.

OP..can I ask...was the tooth IN the bread or just on the surface?


12 weeks sounds like a very long time to get any sort of feedback....youd have thought that a complaint like yours OP would get priority....if nothing else other than to avoid any sort of media attention...cause thats a doozie.

tbh

bogtrotting_boy wrote: »

Hi all,

thanks for your input.

I didn't report it to Food Safety or anyone else as I wanted to give the shop time to respond. There's no point in trying to beat them up if they haven't been given reasonable time to come back to me. This point has been reached and I have no faith in the shop to deal with it properly, given how badly it was handled.

As regards the 30 odd euros I got, probably better than a poke in the eye, but I needed your reactions and comments to help me gauge whether this was enough for finding one of someone elses teeth in my lunch. Clearly it must be.

you shouldn't be looking at the 30 quid as a reward for finding a lucky tooth, you should be trying to find out how it happened and what they are doing to make sure it never happens again. Write to them, tell them you want to know how the tooth got into to the bread and what they are doing to prevent it in future (changing suppliers, reviewing proceedures etc). Tell them that unless they can answer to your satisfaction, you'll be taking the matter to the food safety board. Forget about the money, you didn't earn it so anything you get is just a gesture on their part.