foreign objects in food

Hi guys,
I am new to the forum and wanted to get some feedback. Within the past six weeks, I have been to two different popular high end Louisville restaurants and found foreign objects in my food. The first was what looked like a human hair in my dessert. The second was a metallic object that resembled a staple in my entree. Both times I alerted management and both times the reason given was exactly the same: the foreign object was from a brush the chef uses in the kitchen to brush on glaze. The first time, I bought the explanation because maybe I could have been mistaken about the hair (I really don't think I was mistaken but wanted to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt). But the second time I received the same explanation I started to that think either that the managers were trained in the same place or that this is a standard industry explanation. Please let me know what you guys think.

PS. My fiance and I have been together 3 years and probably eat out 2-3 times a week and these are the first two times we have ever gotten foreign objects in our food.

At least it was two different places. There's a place we went to in which we found a hair in the same appetizer on back to back visits. The first time we let it pass. The second time my wife declared that we weren't going back (privately to me, after we left the restaurant). The sad thing is that we both love the food at this place, but we're just a little to grossed out. To be honest, I could go back now... it's been long enough for me to get over it. My wife takes a little longer to get over things like that though.

That's the first time I've heard the chef's brush explanation. I could see it for, perhaps, a very stiff hair/fiber, but a metal staple? No, no I don't think I could accept any explanation for that one. A hair is just a little gross - a piece of metal, that's dangerous.

nothing turns me off faster than a hair in food. but a metal object? that's flat-out dangerous. the manager should have comped your dinner at the very least.

I can't even remember where I was the other night but I pulled what looked like a hair out of my food so I decided I was finished eating at that point. Still not sure if it was a hair or not, but can't get rid of the ick feeling once a suspected hair is spotted.

I don't ever tell the manager. I don't want to make a scene and I figure they won't do anything anyway, other than apologize. and it's not as if they purposely throw hair in their food.

Waffle House is famous for hairs in food. At least for me. (figure it's okay to name names since it's a low-end chain with a bizillion locations.) Once there was a long hair stuck to the syrup bottle on the table. Uck. Then I had one in my hash browns at another Waffle House location a couple of years later. (Yeah, DH likes Waffle House. It's his "discovery" since he's a California boy and they don't have them out there. He thinks it's really kitchsy and fun and so I let him have his fix every now and then. Or I should say, I did, until the second hair was found.)

Reminds me of a night at a Mediterranean restaurant in Anaheim Hills where a few girlfriends and I were having dinner a couple of years ago. One friend pulled a long, long hair out of her ratatouille and proceeded to hold it up in the air for all of us to see. No question that it was the hair of a stranger - we were all blonde and this one was long and dark. We all had ratatouille on our plates, but we hadn't started eating it yet. She said, "oh, don't mind me and what I found, go ahead and eat yours." We all kind of looked at each other and just skipped that part of our dinners, figuring that the ratatouille all came from the same pot with the hair.

I'm getting the stomach ick just thinking about it...

I went with a couple of friends to a well liked asian place here in town. My friend found a brass screw in his stir fried entree. Thank goodness he didn't do any damage to his dental work. Anyway when we showed it to the waiter he took it and said, "Thanks we've been looking for that!"

I'm LMAO all the way home.

BTW this was over 20 years ago and the place is still around and well respected.

I was eating a Buckheads a few years ago and ordered the Pot Pie and it has a piece of plastic of some kind in it kinda like saran wrap in consistency. I assume it was maybe a wrapper for the chicken or something, but the first thing that popped into my mind when it emerged from the middle of my pot pie on my fork was that it looked like a condom. Talk about grossed out. The management was very apologetic and comped my meal, but I completely lost my appetite and have never been able to order a pot pie again. So, I know what you mean when you say you have trouble returning.

This was quite a few years ago. My boyfriend and I were eating at a local fish place (on the river) on a Friday night. It was packed. He ordered a fish sandwich. When his plate arrived, he took off the bread to put on some tartar sauce. On top of his fish was a used band-aid. It was obvious that it was, at one time, on someones finger. He was trying to get the attention of the waitress, but she would never get close enough for him to be discreet about the band-aid. He finally had to blurt out "Excuse me, but I believe there is a band-aid on my sandwich". You should have seen everyones face at the tables around us. The restaurant made us pay for our meal. I guess they thought we planted the band-aid.

Many years ago I bought a chocolate chip cookie at the cookie counter at the Galleria. Took a bite and a big chunk fell off the edge. Held out my hand to catch the falling crumb, but it only fell about an 2 inches before it started dangling in mid-air, held by a nearly invisible blonde hair that had been baked into the cookie. Went back to the counter, which was very busy with the after lunch crowd - several people deep. Went off to the side and quietly asked to see the manager. Was told he was too busy, to come back later. Said nothing, but held up the cookie with the dangling chad . . er, I mean, crumb. Left less than a minute later with a dozen free cookies under my arm.

The screw could have come loose from something near a prep area or cooking area. We had a scary evening (for Brian & I ) one night, when packaging up the deli foods for the evening, and noticed a small screw on the inside platform of the deli case. Upon further examination, we realized that one of the screws had come loose from the inside top of the display case and dropped down right next to the open bowls of food. That screw could have very easily ended up in someone's order! We spent another hour late that evening making sure that all the rest of the screws on top were in securely.

As a former owner: please, please tell management about any foreign object you find- particularly something like a staple! If you don't tell us, we don't know and there may be something that can be fixed to prevent it from happening to another patron. (AND you'll learn something about the place from the way they respond.)

Deb

I have to chime in here, a few years ago at a TGIFridays I found a wire in my burger. I go the same "brush used on the grill" excuse! I dont' know if it makes it true or an easy explanation. I think they comped my meal, but it's been awhile and my memory is faulty.

I was eating a Buckheads a few years ago and ordered the Pot Pie and it has a piece of plastic of some kind in it kinda like saran wrap in consistency. I assume it was maybe a wrapper for the chicken or something, but the first thing that popped into my mind when it emerged from the middle of my pot pie on my fork was that it looked like a condom. Talk about grossed out. The management was very apologetic and comped my meal, but I completely lost my appetite and have never been able to order a pot pie again. So, I know what you mean when you say you have trouble returning.

The "condom" was probably a finger cot used to protect open cuts on fingers, unless there is much more than just "cooking" happening in the BOH at Buckheads. As for all the "metal" comments, it is likely that shards of metal scrubbie (there's a trade name for these but I won't divulge it on an open forum) got stuck to the rivets of a saute pan somewhere (i've seen this happen frequently and if your not paying attention and using old pans, it can end up in the food). The "staple" probably came from a broccoli box (or similar) and ended up in the dish out of carelessness. As for the "brush" comments, if it was a straight, ridgid, blond hair, it is likely from a sub-par or worn out brush. Any other type of hair is likely human (Yummy!).I can say that in my day, I have found many a not so tasty rock in my dried beans, animal turds in my field greens, finishing nails in my Basmati Rice, and what appeared to be a large peice of skull in a bag of Thai Jasmine Rice! To summarize, watch what you eat AND watch what you cook......

Note to self (2/22/08 12:36 pm): Do not open this thread again while eating lunch.

Skull parts? You really have to wonder what was going on in that processing/packaging plant.

Skull parts? You really have to wonder what was going on in that processing/packaging plant.

I swear it looked like a 5" piece of er... um....maybe...human skull, but who knows? Some rice patties remind me a lot of English Peet Bogs....great place to dump a body perhaps?

dave have you been hiding the bodies again??

my favorite foreign object in the food
happened a long time ago in a pizza place across from my former high school
a friend was eating his bread stick and ended up pulling a used band aid out of his mouth that had been lost in the dough

funniest thing i've ever seen, was the look on his face when he pulled the band aid out of his mouth
and so glad it wasn't me

shawn

Interesting post- as already mentioned scrubbies do get stuck in pan rivets, then end up in the food. As do metal broiler brush bristles.
Not using the metal scrubbies, and brushes is the best way to remove the possibility that they end up there. Boars bristle brushes
are a problem, as are any brushes used for pastry products and should be checked to insure good condition. My first memory of a foreign object in food
was the snail that came with Grandma's salad. Ok, so maybe it was not so foreign, but I remember the uproar she created. Having worked in foodservice now 20 years I'm not quite as surprised when something like that happens. Many people forget where our food comes from- so despite triple washings of lettuce I've seen some bugs... but the things in food my staff and I discovered before it made it to the dining room include the following: barbed wire in the chard, a scorpion in with the cantaloupe, a large rusty nail in the lamb's lettuce (not from the crate), rubber bands in bread, staples, rocks, and plenty more. Dining out the things I've found include plenty of hair, some of those metal scrubbie strands, roach egg sacs (YUK), gnats, worms, rocks, etc... Worst of all, although not technically a foreign object was what turned out to be a quarter sized chunk of white pepper in my hot and sour soup. It's truly amazing what we find when our senses are trained to detect such things. I love to complain when this happens and expect the situation to be remedied as it is a big problem, that should be treated as such. Perhaps even more alarming is what we don't see, and is reason enough to choose the most reputable growers, producers, and of course restaurants with properly trained staff.