French food company fined for canned mouse (Alerte de vomi!)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | February 11, 2004

[dead]

France's biggest maker of canned vegetables, Bonduelle, has been ordered to pay €800 ($1320) to a disgusted customer, who tipped the contents of one of its products into her frying pan - and a dead mouse plopped out.

The customer involved, a woman preparing a family meal in February 2002, took the company to court after it tried to limit its compensation to another can of food, a recipe book and a voucher to the value of the fry-pan, court officials said.

The firm argued that the woman and her family suffered no ill-effects from the nasty surprise.

But a court in the woman's home city of Montpellier deemed late last month "the presence of a dead animal, even a sterilised one, constitutes a misdemeanour in a food product" and ordered the firm to make the more substantial gesture.

AFP

[martin_fierro]

France's biggest maker of canned vegetables, Bonduelle, has been ordered to pay €800 ($1320) to a disgusted customer, who tipped the contents of one of its products into her frying pan - and a dead mouse plopped out.

Please. They eat snails, fercryinoutloud.

[from occupied ga]

They eat snails and then complain about a mouse?

[martin_fierro]

GMTA <|:)~

[from occupied ga]

2 seconds

[skinkinthegrass]

..kinda like "the KFC Fried Chicken Head story"...would you like another piece?...BLOK! BLOK!

[stuartcr]

She would have gotten lots more if that happened here.

[rrrod]

frogs eating mice?

[expatguy]

I saw a tit.

[mewzilla]

Souris Surprise!

[Cobra64]

Sounds like Mickey's career is now over.

[Arkie2]

Was it chocolate mousse? I don't see a problem!

[billorites]

I prefer the crunchy frog.

[robertpaulsen]

You gotta love the logic of the proposed compensation -- "another can of food, a recipe book and a voucher to the value of the fry-pan".

I don't understand the recipe book (maybe a "sweetener" to get her to go for the deal), but hey, they're giving her what she's out. Makes perfect sense.

Of couse, in the US, she would get $1 million and own the company.

[Atlantic Friend]

Hah ! Come to eat a few finely-cooked snails, and you'll no longer want to touch mice meat ! lol

More seriously, these stories happen from time to time. I had heard of a US (or was it British) firm that made Christmas chocolates shaped in the likes of all kind of animals. A mouse fell in the vats where the chocolate was, and ended in a pack of chocolates that were sold... I can imagine the surprise of the customer that bit THAT chocolate surprise ! lol

[robertpaulsen]

Someone say, "Moose"?

[Arkie2]

Not I! If meese is the plural of moose what is the plural of mouse?

[Theo]

That was McDonalds. It was in an order of Chicken McNoggins. You deserve a beak today.

[from occupied ga]

When I was small (just before the asterod hit) we found a mouse in a jar of apple butter. We didn't go to court about it though. The apple butter people offered a free case, but I can't remember if we took them up on it or not.

[Atlantic Friend]

You see, that's the advantage with snails. With snails, you know where you stand. There's no documented case of a dead mice falling of the empty shell ! lol

More seriously, I can't stand the damn snails. I always end up eating more garlic sauce than these little tire shreds.