“Candy-coated popcorn, peanuts, and a prize – that’s what you get in Cracker Jack!”
Kids today may not be familiar with that sing-song slogan, but Baby Boomers remember it well, even if they haven’t eaten any in years for fear of breaking teeth or dentures.
They also remember the excitement of digging through popcorn and peanuts to locate the prize and eagerly tearing open the little paper envelope that contained it to find out what it was: a blissful moment that their more sophisticated kids and grandkids are unlikely to understand, given that the prize was just a little plastic animal the size of a nickel or a transfer decal.
The thing is, they knew a “foreign object” was supposed to be nestled among the edible ingredients in that snack box somewhere, they expected it to be there, and they were determined to find it. If they hadn’t found it, if it hadn’t been in there as promised by the advertising in multiple media and on the label, they’d have been outraged and the Cracker Jack Company would have had some explaining to do.
Finding things in packaged or unpackaged foods that you’re not expecting to find is another matter. That can be disconcerting or worse.
Imagine a safety pin inside a bag of Utz potato chips, for instance. Imagine not finding that safety pin and biting down on it unawares or swallowing it.
Patricia Saidi claims that, while eating a bag of Utz potato chips two years ago, she says she bit down on a safety pin and broke the crown of an implanted tooth. She’s now suing the company for $10,000 in Kanawha Circuit Court. The only problem: no evidence.
Saidi says she contacted Utz after the incident and was told to send them the safety pin and the potato chip bag for investigation, and she alleges the company subsequently denied responsibility and destroyed the “evidence.”
Utz “vehemently denies” her claim.
Maybe it happened like Saidi said, but all she has is an unsubstantiated accusation.
Case closed.