Consumers cannot expect boneless chicken wings to actually be free of bones, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday, rejecting claims by a restaurant patron who suffered serious medical complications from getting a bone stuck in his throat.

Michael Berkheimer was dining with his wife and friends at a wing joint in Hamilton, Ohio, and had ordered the usual — boneless wings with parmesan garlic sauce — when he felt a bite-size piece of meat go down the wrong way. Three days later, feverish and unable to keep food down, Berkeimer went to the emergency room, where a doctor discovered a long, thin bone that had torn his esophagus and caused an infection.

In a 4-3 ruling, the Supreme Court said Thursday that “boneless wings” refers to a cooking style, and that Berkheimer should’ve been on guard against bones since it’s common knowledge that chickens have bones. The high court sided with lower courts that had dismissed Berkheimer’s suit.

  • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    That doesn’t sound right. How can you guarantee zero fly/fruit fly eggs in something like orange juice with pulp. Fly eggs are tiny and can be found on fresh fruit skins even on the trees. Certain juices preclude the kind of filtration that could be used to achieve 100% fruit fly egg removal. I don’t know anything about European food regulations, but from a practical perspective it seems impossible to guarantee ZERO fruit fly egg contamination. Especially considering Europe tends to be more flexible with insects in food than the US such as Casu martzu.

    I suspect if there really is no max insect parts limit, there is a procedural requirement that ensures contamination is kept low.

    • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Thats probably because I never said its provably 100% free. So, no wonder it didn’t sound right.

      I said no detectable level is acceptable. If you detect any in there, its bad.

      • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        We can detect single eggs. But they’re not putting the whole juice supply under the microscope, one slide at a time. So, it seems you’re saying “we don’t check”.

        • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Much like the whole “kills 99.9% of bacteria” its nearly to impossible prove beyond any doubt that all of something is completely, 100% devoid of something else in all instances. Being able to detect one egg or not isn’t the problem here.

          Its like you want to find something wrong with what was said so bad that you didn’t fully pay attention to it.