Fun With Food

So, that acetaminophen recall? We have two of the effected bottles. Luckily, they are both unopened, and the open bottle we have (with just two pills left) is a completely different brand/manufacturer.

Which brings us to the Great Cookie Scandal of the summer of 2006.

I won't tell you the brand, because I have no desire to harm the company that made the cookies and I do believe it was a complete accident. However! There we were, enjoying some cookies after a special family night, one in which (as far as our children were concerned) cookies were the main attraction.

Whilst chewing away, the husband got a funny look on his face, stuck two fingers into his mouth and pulled out a wad of masticated cookie stuff. Then he asked me to look at it.

(Ah, romance. Isn't it nice when your husband still makes an effort to impress you?)

Turns out there was a shiny new screw in the cookie. Sharp little sucker, too, which is good, because it stabbed the husband in the cheek before he could swallow it, which would have been just so unpleasant.

The husband and I were agog. Neither of us has ever had anything like that happen to us. He washed it off and I checked the package to find the phone number for the major food manufacturer.

Long story short, they apologized profusely, and sent us a package in which we could return the screw to them so that they could figure out what had happened. They also sent us several coupons for free items. (I'll admit, I was a tad disappointed. I was hoping for an offer of cash to keep our mouths shut! "Ten thousand? Sure, no problem. Glad to take it. Never a peep out of us, cross my heart." But nope, all they offered was free cookies.)

We sent the screw back, and a few weeks later they sent us (along with more coupons for free cookies) the report from their quality control people about how the screw got into the cookie. Which, summed up, was, "We dunno!" Although they did let us know that they had discovered the foreign object in the cookie was ... a screw.

Gee, I feel so reassured about my food safety.

Personally, I am of the opinion that somebody was doing some maintenance on a machine, put the screw down so they could grab it later, and then either forgot about it, or knocked it off and was embarrassed to admit it.

Which brings us back to the acetaminophen. I called the number given on the FDA press release and evidently Perrigo is going to send us a package in which we are to ship the bad product back to them. We'll get a refund. I don't know if it'll be a check, or a coupon for free pain reliever.

It's definitely not going to be a bribe.

Sheesh. Can't I ever catch a break?