This Bag Of Clancy’s Ripple Potato Chips Needs More Nokia Phones
A Nokia phone found its way into a bag of Clancy's Ripple Potato Chips, where it surprised Wisconsin nosher Emma Schweiger. The phone, which didn't work, was slathered with "greasy potato-chip film" and looked like it once lived on a belt clip. The chip's distributor, Aldi, pulled all other Clancy's chips with the same batch and expiration date and, by way of apology, offered Schweiger a free bag of chips. She isn't biting...
"You kind of don't want chips for a while" after something like that, she said.
Schweiger contacted the Madison office of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and an official there told her to hang onto the bag for an investigation, she said.
FDA officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
Schweiger isn't sure what she'll do next but hopes the FDA can track down the owner of the phone.
She's glad she found the phone and not a child who might have put it in his or her mouth, she said. She's also glad the phone wasn't in a product she would have heated, she said.
Schweiger doesn't know when she'll have an appetite for potato chips again, but when she does, she'll do things a little differently.
"I will never, ever eat chips out of a bag again," she said. "They will be dumped in the bowl."
Local woman finds unpleasant surprise in her potato chips [The Janesville Gazette] (Thanks to Rob!)
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Comments:
Why is she losing her appetite for chips? It's a phone, not a slug or maggots. I think she's making this into something it isn't...it's not a traumatic experience, it was just weird.
If I found a cell phone in a bag of chips, it wouldn't put me off. It's a cell phone, not a dead animal (or a LIVING animal).
I think it's the fact that something foreign was in the bag, period. Beside, phones can pick up all kinds of germs from hands/mouths which can then be transmitted to the food.
I think the point is, if quality control can't detect an entire WHOLE cellular phone, then what else could slip in.
Now imagine if when she opened the bag it was ringing...
First off eww generic chips. If I'm going to eat something unhealthy I'm getting the good stuff. What's the point in it if it's not the good stuff?
Second, whats wrong with a free bag of chips? Lawsuits are not the answer.
@pecan 3.14159265: I would agree with you. Granted I wouldn't eat that particular bag of chips just to be safe, but I wouldn't be turned away from them completely. Heck, I'd probably fix up the phone if possible then eBay it.
@Chris Chagnon: "hello neo, this is Chester Cheetah, do you want to see how cheesy the rabbit hole really is?"
@ramfan1701: The entire production process can also put germs from hands and mouths and nuts and bolts into a bag of chips. It's rare, but it's not surprising when you think about how food is manufactured and packaged. If I opened a bag of chips and reached in to find a cell phone, I'd think it was weird, but it would hardly be an experience that would prompt me to say I'd never eat chips out of the bag again. It's a phone, not a sharp stick or maggot. I'm not denying that there's an issue with foreign objects mistakenly being put into food products, but I feel like this woman's response is just a tad melodramatic.
@se7a7n7:
Yea, everyone rips on generic products, but alot really isnt that bad. My dad works for a regional potato chip company where I'm from and right along side of the chips that have his companys brand name are the generic chips with the stores name on them for ALOT less. Same chips, slightly smaller packaging, HUGE discount.
No, she isn't biting, she's angling. This woman is positioning herself to claim trauma which can only be mitigated by the arrival of a check containing at least two digits to the left of the comma.
She's correct in not eating the chips and alerting the store and the FDA. But she's not correct in what I perceive as a game, and her claim that she's glad she found the phone as opposed to a child sticking it into their mouth is a ridiculous statement. There isn't a choking hazard to any child not old enough to know better, and children not old enough to know better stick far worse things in their mouths -- like their own hands, old socks, pets and whatever they can shove in there.
As far as the quality control statement, that's a valid point and one that should make consumers realize that food quality isn't the only thing that suffers when buying house or non-name brands. I'm sure the QC suffers a bit too.
Sweet baby Jeebus, if a child had put that thing in his mouth! His mouth would have been...full of cell phone. Or he might have pushed some buttons and called a 900 porn line! I'd definitely sue. Definitely. The potato people think they can get away with anything just because they grow potatoes. Bastards.
This broad is clearly looking for a payday.
"Schweiger isn't sure what she'll do next..." Sure she is. She's looking for some scumbag attorney to sue for millions and settle for five figures.
@zentec: And what young child who would put a cell phone into their mouths also knows how to open a big bag of chips? Or would be allowed to?
I just hate that this woman is making this into some sob story, because it's not. It's a quirky story about a stray object getting into food. To me, she has money grubber written all over her with her melodramatic statements.
If this happened to me, I would have laughed at it. Or wished it was at least an iPhone instead of a crappy old Nokia. An iPhone would have been a definite bonus!
@zentec: i gotta agree, i mean its absurd to think a child would jam a phone in his or her mouth thinking its a potato chip...
Pull the sim card from the phone, check both the number and the contacts list attached to the phone and figure out who it belonged to. Not real difficult to investigate this one.
I'm sorry, but this line:
"....and not a child who might have put it in his or her mouth"
Does she really think a child who is eating potato chips would really confuse a phone with a chip?
I can understand the complaint about non-chip items being in the chips, and hope the situation is solved - but trying to make it sound worse like some stupid child would accidentally eat the phone thinking it was a chip.... Give me a break. Just stick to the fact, try not to pull the "emotional" card.
@uptonogood: Wow. You can hear the the smug sense of self-satisfaction from the tone of your voice. Fucking whoever you are.
@zentec: True dat. She sounds like she would sue Lucky Charms for including a decoder ring in their cereal.
This is what happens when you shop at elcheapo places like Aldi. All they have is expired and generic foods. When you only want to pay generic prices you give up other things like quality control and taste. Im actually surprised this type of thing doesnt happen more often. The blame here should be on the chip company and not Aldi but Aldi probably has more money so that is who she will sue
@coan_net: I think maybe she meant that the child would play with the phone and put it in their mouth.
But that leads me to a point I made somewhere else. Why the heck would a parent let a child who would stick random things into their mouths to chew on eat potato chips or open a bag of them by themselves?
@Gorphlog: I buy plenty of store brands, I've never gotten weird things in my food. This isn't a reason to NOT buy generic food. Plenty of name brand food end up with weird things too.
@Chris Chagnon:
THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
Anyway, I wonder how the cell phone actually got in there? Probably some worker talking on the phone and it dropped into a tank of chips or something?
Aldi food is no different from any other food. I've been eating it for years and it's always been just as good as the stuff you naysaying snobs overpay for at other stores.
I don't know if this is related.. but ever get one of those really over cooked or burnt chips? did you try to eat it too? omg that was gross, right? from now on i'm only eating cell phones.. the light ones, i'm not an idiot.
She has a legitimate complaint but there are soldiers who come back from war with less PTSD than she does after this
She is correct not to eat the bag of chips, a phone can pick up all kinds of nasty germs. There was a case here where a student picked up MSRA from using another student's cell phone. Apparently cell phones are now to be personal objects that are not to be shared, your supposed to treat it as makeup.
I would just be freaked out by this, but it wouldn't make me claim a lawsuit or anything. I would alert the store, and they could decide what they wanted to do about it.
I do agree that there is some quality control issues going on there, that phone would make the bag of chips very heavy, much heavier than other bags of chips, so they should have known to pull that bag with the phone in it.
The phone probably doesn't have a charge which is why it won't work. Would probably be fine if it had a charge. I don't think grease on the outside of a phone would be enough to kill it. Maybe if it fell in a pot of grease. I own a similar model of phone and you can open it very easily, all you do is push on the back, so she could do that to see if there was any grease inside of the phone, which would indicate if it was dead or not.
Hey they're stealing Cracker Jack's gimmick of including a prize.
Sue sue sue sue! OMG! Pain and suffering! Psychological trauma! Whiplash..infertility..anxiety, loss of work, divorce!
Everyone aboard the lawsuit train!
Now she needs to see a therapist....
Doc, I just keep thinking now matter what I'm eating, it's a phone...
Sue? She has no case.
am I the only one thinking
'What a free gift! they've really improved over the years....'
How many kids starved to death yesterday? There might be something worse than putting cell phone in your mouth.
She made the whole story up. Our government regulates food processing plants. Hence, there are no germs or foreign objects ever allowed near a production facility. You'll have to excuse me. All of this talk about food has made me hungry. I have to go make a pb&j sandwich;) It is all that I can afford now that we have the Republican depression.
eww... A nokia phone? I would have called to complain too.
I don't think she's overreacting. A used cellphone is very unsanitary.
I'm sure it's not only the cellphone that diminishes her appetite. I think it's the newfound knowledge that potato chips may not be processed with much concern for food safety. Imagine if the phone had been dropped in the chips, then retrieved by the owner. You'd never know what your eating.
And why the assumption that she's just looking for money? What would you do in this situation? I'd bet most of us would head straight to this site and tell everyone about it.
Yeah... what money? She isn't going to get much if anything. She didn't suffer any injury.
@KyleOrton: Their tortilla chips are really good, too! I love the blue corn & flax kind. It seems like their house brand pita chips are always broken into teensy pieces, though.
People can be so damn wierd. Yea it sucks that a phone was in the bag of chips but being turned off from eating them, and never eating them out of a bag again? Give me a break lady.
Shes acting like she found a finger or something.
@uptonogood: I didn't hear the sound of cash registers at all, and I'm an American who's never filed a lawsuit. Fucking whoevers who assume all Americans are greedy.
@invisiblenemies: badhatharry gets grief for responding in kind to uptonogood, but uptonogood doesn't get one for starting it? Gotta love double standards.
Generic chips from Aldi? ewwwwwwwwwwwww