Fla. Parents Sue McDonald's, Claiming Fries Made Daughter Ill

Fla. Parents Sue McDonald's, Claiming Fries Made Daughter Ill

POSTED: 6:37 pm EST February 18, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The parents of a 5-year-old girl sued McDonald's Corp., claiming its french fries contained a wheat protein that caused their daughter to become seriously ill.

Mark and Theresa Chimiak of Jupiter said in the lawsuit filed Friday in Palm Beach Circuit Court that their daughter Annalise had an intolerance to gluten.

The Chimiaks said they filed the lawsuit after McDonald's acknowledged earlier in the week that wheat and dairy ingredients were used in cooking oil for french fries.

The family's attorney, Brian W. Smith, said the family had checked with McDonald's before she ate the fries.

"They were assured by McDonald's Web site and local restaurant managers that the product was gluten-free," Smith said.

http://www.local6.com/news/7199639/detail.html

without throwing up. I first tried them back in the mid-fifties, when they had sold less than a million burgers. I tried them again, from time to time, until the 70s, when they brought out new products. Big Macs made me sick. McNuggets made me sick. Only thing I've ever been able to eat there are the cookies and the ice cream.

... were responsible; they researched (checked the web site) and verified the information with the managers ... if their child has celiac disease the misinformation truly jeopardized their child's health. In this case McDonald's should be held responsible. I see no difference between this and misinforming people with food allergies about the contents of their products.

Man, I wished my parents sued every restaurant I got sick at as a kid.

The canteloupe went down..and came right back up.. They whisked it away pronto, and offered to pay for an ER visit, but we settled for a 7-up to go, and had them take it off our bill :)
He was about 4 and was totally embarrassed.. He's now 28, and still remembers throwing up at dennys..

I guess we should have sued:)..

We would be RICH if we had sued every time we "could have"..

A guy in a caddy ran a red light and broadsided my car a week before my 2nd child was born.. our car spun around 3-4 times and landed on its side in a ditch.. I banged up my elbow, and my son clonked his head a bit (our 4 yr old was with me).. It never occured to us to sue anyone.

they knew you had an allergy (let's say, for sake of discussion, to peanuts), so they called the Popeye's Chicken hedquarters and asked if they used peanut oil in their frying process and were told no, so then they call the local popeye's chicken franchise and asked if they used peanut oil in their frying process and were told no, so they bring you to the popeye's chicken location and they fed you chicken fried in peanut oil and you died.

And the parents, thinking they'd made an informed and responsible decision fed their kid something poisonous to her based on McDonald's lies.

It's called accountability.

either. This is far more serious. Read some of my posts below. After my hubby got sick at what was once our favorite restaurant we didn't go back for years. Hard to trust them again.

If YOUR kid has an allergy that YOU know about, you should NEVER trust a fast food place. school cafeteria,even restaurant to be hyper-vigilant regarding your child's food. There are a HUGE number of odd allergies these days, and to cater tp any/all of these would pretty much do them in.

It's up to YOU..

Our youngest had a severe bee/wasp allergy, so we were always thinking ahead about where we took him..would there likely be bees? Could there be bees? Got his epi-pen?

It's up to the parents..not the restaurant..

being expected to be honest when asked a question.

my heart goes out to them.

In the case of a restaurant like Mcdonald's, the food preparation is very specific and consistent ... the preparation is not left up to the discretion of cooks/chefs. The process, procedure and ingredients are standard. With celiac disease (unlike allergies, where inhalation of a few molecules of the allergen can be lethal) the afflicted person must ingest gluten and process it through their digestive system. McDonald's has a responsibility to accurately report the contents of their food, if they can not make a guarantee they should clearly state that.

the true ingredients from the consumers!!

...in my original response (see #2) The parents DID all the right (responsible things). McDonalds did not ... and should be held responsible.

real life does not work. One is in college( had to cook for himself in addition to other college adjustments) and the other is a senior in high school. He is going on a three day field trip with his Advanced Placement English class to a Shakespear festival and I am making arrangements for his meals ahead.He has another field trip with his physics class later. He has to eat out some. Thats more realistic but challenging in the extreme. Think about dating and the prom. I had to make special arrangments for the junior prom dinner.

For people with celiac that logic would be extremely limiting to an already very very limiting disease. We do make almost all meals at home, but these children are entitled to equal access and equal opportunities. Public health has always been one area of nursing I liked and its nice to see these parents fight this.
Many many have celiac without any symptoms and are not diagnosed yet, putting them at risk for lymphoma. One in every 133 may have it and many are misdiagnosed or never diagnosed until they are extremeley ill. This is not an epi pen situation. It is an autoimmune disease, and exposure to gluten can increase ones risk to anemia, brittle and soft bones, failure to thrive and grow appropriatly as children. I know of many kids who have been in ICU near death with no diagnosis because American doctors lack enough familiarity with this disease to check for it. Many girls are falsely accused of being anorexic and mothers accused of worse. (Munchausen by proxy in one case I know of personally and it was also covered in a major news story last year). European doctors do a much better job and this disease is seen so commonly there that in Sweden McDonalds serves burgers with gluten free buns and the government pays for gluten free foods for people with celiac.

There are plenty of places celiacs do not eat out at, if a restuaurant does not want to work with its customers. Celiacs are incredibly loyal and return and tip well, in our case we do. We do stick to better restaurants that know their ingredients but it is still a challenge. I do know some people will completely stop eating out, take their own food on short trips, etc. I thought my childs juvenile diabetes was difficult, and it has been, but this has made life for him much harder. Many celiacs also have thyroid disease or juvenile diabetes as they are at risk for all other immune type diseases, Lupus is another one.

Restaurants do have an obligation to reveal what is in their food, it is a public health issue. Lately I'm thinking about that e coli in the ice at their ice machines. But wait, we shouldn't expect them to have clean ice right? I'll bring my own next time were out.

you are always going to be at the mercy of the local place. I know for a fact that if an order is shorted, they will buy what they need locally, and it may not be the same..

I would be afraid to risk it.

It must be a nightmare trying to plan menues..

found out how they purchased their food, switching wholesalers and suppliers would increase risk. So for the longer term plan in feeding him at college we went through an ordeal getting him assigned to a dorm with a kitchenette. They won't put freshmen in those normally. Just upper classmen which worked out for older son but not younger son. Now oldest is off campus and still cooks for himself but he cannot do this everyday of his life. Younger son is applying to small privates with food service by Bon Appetite. But he will still have to cook some. On a recent college search trip through the Seattle Airport we found only two items in five restaurants he could have. Plain rice and stir fried veg's. If he would hve been willing to eat broiled fish he might have gotten that. Same at the school. So all day for this one day trip he had a grand total of two rice servings, one boiled chicken serving and one veggie serving. Everything else had gluten or he didn't like it. (salads would have been a possibility if he could have had a gluten free dressing.)

My other post goes into greater detail, but I will make some addendums here:

Now many food companies put on the box "May contain" or "has been processed by" in terms of allergens to warn the families. When you go to a restaurant and you've got an allergy, you're playing roulette - PERIOD. Even the store clerks and management may or may not have a clue and chances are they don't. Hell, any store I go to and try to ask the staff for help and they haven't a clue. They only do what they're told.

There does come a point where personal responsibility has some merit.

OTOH, maybe corporations should start hiring people with some FUNCTIONING BRAIN CELLS and pay them more than half-a-pittance! That way they'd have fewer problems like this one (fewer product returns too because the staff are too thick to help...)

should grow and prepare all of our own food just to be sure? :shrug:

What about foods purchased at a supermarket, or a local Deli? Consumers have a right to know what's in the food that's sold to us, period. It shouldn't matter what kind of establishment sells it. They shouldn't be allowed to lie about what's in their food just to make a sale.

My daughter suffers from the exact same malady that this child suffers from. As her parents, my wife and I take it quite seriously when we choose what food we put on our table. Those parents did the appropriate thing by checking with both the corporate web site of the company, and then double checking with the local management of the restaurant, just in case they deviate at all from what the chain does. They were lied to plain and simple. This is not a mater of a restaurant "catering to" people with allergies. Had the corporation or local management been honest about what was in the food that they were serving, I'm certain that those parents would never have chosen to feed it to their child.

If they can't stay in business by being honest about what they're serving to their customers, they shouldn't be in business in the first place! The parents didn't say they couldn't or shouldn't use wheat gluten, they only asked if they did, and they were lied to. This has nothing to do with the restaurant not practicing "hyper-vigilance" on behalf of their customers, it has to do with life threatening lies they told based on greed. There's a big difference.

Steven P.

We had an opportunity to make a gluten and dairy-free pizza for Koko the
world famous gorilla who communicates through sign language. She requested a
pizza for her Christmas dinner and since gorillas do better without gluten
or dairy, the Gorilla Foundation contacted us. This isn't to say we're going
to start making pizza, just to show that everybody seems to be going
gluten-free these days!


Also, please take a minute to click on the following link for many, many new
locations carrying Crave goodies on the Central Coast, the Foothills,
Northern CA and the Bay Area (you may need to refresh your screen to update
listings if you've visited our site before):


http://www.cravebakery.org/buy.html

The bakery keeps in topuch with our support group and posted this.

of paper posted in a fast food joint says..

These allergies can be life threatening.. not just a pukey bellyache.. I would not want to risk it.

Mc Donalds hase been caught lying many times..

I would not trust my child's health to Mc Donalds..

I think I WOULD be hypervigilant and insist on home prepared food, where I could control what went into it.

and I posted a thread a few days back where I RANTED about additives and disguised ingredients.. I want them OUT..Most of them serve no purpose but to get rid of "non-toxic" sludge that companies don;t want to pay to dispose of, so they get a junk-scientist to assure that it's not dangerous, and they "enrich" foods with it..:grr:

probably didn;t even know what gluten was, and was probably doing 3 or 4 tasks at once, and didn;t even ask a higher-up.

They go out of their way to make people fend for themselves as often as possible; we're lucky to get those warnings on regular food packages.

Go to any other store (e.g. best buy) and ask them any even mundane yet technical question. They won't have a clue. Half the time, their "geek" squad folks won't have a clue either. :D

It's not about thinking. It's about productivity.

And if McD gets sued for this type of slopartist service, then any chain should be equally liable.

Customers' time is valuable too. (Wait, customers aren't important any more. Bottom lines are.)

All that said, the customer needs to take the initiative at times too - and use common sense. In this case, not going to these garbage "food" joints is the best, if not only, solution. It's not food. It's pre-packaged grease on a plate. Who knows where it's been?

My niece, (sister's daughter) is highly allergic to peanuts. Their family took a flight from New York to L.A. and somewhere over Arizona her 2 year old grabbed a magazine from the seat back in front of her and stuck it in her mouth, as she was teething at the time. My sister immediately grabbed it away from her but within seconds she started gasping for breath and went into convulsions, resulting in the plane making an emergency landing in Phoenix. Turns out the magazine had peanut oil residue from previous passengers who had eaten the peanuts handed out on the plane and had then handled the magazine.

When you have a child that is that sensitive to certain substances you have to be constantly on guard every minute of every day lest they do something stupid like that. In the end she was fine after treatment at the hospital and the airline, on their own initiative, added a warning to their literature for 'special needs' passengers alerting parents to request that the flight attendant remove reading materials that might be contaminated from their seats and wipe the seats down prior to seating their children.

I still firmly believe that a business that sells food to the public has a responsibility to be honest to their customers, even if it means telling them "I can't guarantee that it doesn't contain _____", or just simply "I don't know" or "I'm not sure".

If a business advertises that something is safe then they should be held accountable when it turns out it isn't.

Steven P. :kick:

No matter where one gets food from, if the food company lies about its ingredients then parents of children with allergies can't protect them.

I hope the parents win big in court.

:shrug:

WTF?

Certain wheat and dairy proteins are added to the cooking oil in order to enhance the flavor of the french fries.

McDonald's claim is that the wheat proteins do not contain any gluten, which is the allergen for people with celiac disease.

but couldn't find any information as to what temperature gluten breaks down in cooking oil. Are its chemical properties persistent in cooking oil at 350 degrees?

Same for dairy. Don't dairy constituents actually cook and change chemical composition in cooking oil?

I'm not a chemist by any stretch, but something tells me that polymers like gluten and some dairy constituents won't be able to stand the temp.

reason I drive to a neighboring community to get gluten free bread and pizza crusts and biscuits. Temperature doesn't affect the offending protein. We have to use a flour mix of rice flours, tapioca flour, sweet rice flour, potato starch, corn starch and xanthum gum to create a flour for baked goods.

All fried foods have to be fried in a desginated frier, even the toaster must be a designated GF toaster, can't be used for regular baked good. Pans for cooking and frying must be clean as well as utensils. Even the storage in the fridge and cabinets has to be Gluten free.

supposedly is taking the protein out of the oil. After that they are shipped to McD's. That company may be Simplot in Idaho. The example given is a process similar to removing the protein from vinegar in the distillation process. I posted comments from the executive director of celiac alliance about this down below.

It doesn't matter what temp you cook dairy at...it will still make me sick.

why would you add wheat and diary products to cooking oil?

ellen fl

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

I personally say that fast food companies are spawn of the devil regardless (that crap isn't food. It's a heart attack in a bun....) And that's why I avoid them. I know what's in the food. Hell, I used to work at such a joint. :puke: I sure as hell would never eat at those places. Anyone who HAS worked there would tell you the same...

I may as well sue the company because the employees didn't clean up the loo and some errant bacteria made me sick.

Or, better yet, I'll sue mother nature because sick-making bacteria are all over the place.

I don't see anything unreasonable about that at all.

to be so careful, always having to explain this to restaurant staff, schools and its also expensive.

I know my older son eats these fries with a bunless 1/4 pounder.

Thank you big time for posting this, I will forward the news story to my celiac parents group.

Kids and McDonalds just seem to go to together. This was one of the "normal" gluten-free activities that she could enjoy. She's going to be very disappointed when we tell her about this.

Sid

February 16, 2006

STATEMENT ON MCDONALDS FOR GIG BRANCH LEADERS
McDonald's and the Celiac Community

The Gluten Intolerance Group of NA, members of the American Celiac Disease Alliance, and others have worked at length with McDonald's, the FDA, research and industry leaders to help provide an answer to the outcry by the celiac and allergy communities to McDonald's recent announcement of wheat and dairy being in the fries.

A position statement from GIG, CDF and others in the ACDA:
The science and processing of refined oils does not allow residual proteins to be left in the oils at any level significant to be detected or cause an allergic reaction. The favoring agent added to the oil during par-frying is possibly suspect, however until information is provided on testing of the flavoring agent we cannot say if it is a problem or not. The flavoring company has stated to McDonald's that the flavoring has no allergenic proteins and since McDonald's policy is that the fryers used fry the French fries are dedicated and only used for potatoes, this would mean the fries are gluten-free. McDonald's is expected to make an updated statement about this situation in the very near future. We anticipate that it may include information about recent testing.

Choosing to eat any food is always the individual consumer's choice. If you feel uncomfortable with this information, it is ultimately your choice to eat the fries or not.

GIG and other leaders in the celiac community have taken a proactive position on advocating for safe food for persons with celiac disease and appropriate labeling. At the same time, it is important to recognize the need for education about how the law may initially cause confusion about ingredients that are truly safe and should not be required to be labeled, according to this law.

As we try to educate consumers, it is important that the community approach their questions and concerns in a calm, logical manner. This is not always easy to do when the health of a child or yourself is at potential risk. Ultimately, it will have positive impact on the food industry and their desire to work with us for our benefit.

Background:
The FALCPA law does not apply to McDonald's or other restaurants. It applies to packaged foods. The allergen information will appear on the packaging of foods purchased by consumers and those purchased by food businesses, such as restaurants, hospitals and schools. However, the law does not require such businesses to post this information.

McDonald's is a company that wants to be transparent and supportive of health initiatives within the fast food industry and the allergic community. In wanting to be transparent, they chose to disclose information about their fries, based on the package labeling information on the foods they purchase.

FALCPA is an excellent law, and will resolve the majority of labeling issues for persons with celiac disease, gluten intolerances and allergies. It requires that plain language be used on packaging to identify the top 8 allergens – wheat, soy, eggs, dairy, fish, shellfish, tree nuts and peanuts.

The law exempts from labeling these allergens in the event that the allergens are removed and the allergenic protein does not exist in the ingredient. An example of such an exemption is refined oil. The law allows companies to file exemptions for ingredients, if they can prove no allergen exists in the ingredient.

At this time, the FDA has not filed formal rulings on the exemptions filed.

McDonalds fries are hands down the BEST fast food fries around. Maybe they put crack rock into the frier, I dont care, they are tasty :).

5%, and often its less, of whats in a fast food restaurant or school cafeteria what would you say then? And I agree they do taste good, but imagine your life with celiac the extremely few food choices. Trader Joes has been changing suppliers and over the past year my childrens food options at that grocery store went from five to two. I now drive a long distance from home to get gluten free foods because many are not available locally. Fortunately Whole Foods has done a good job supplying GF items.

:spray: :rofl:

They ARE tasty... but I would NEVER order anything larger than a 'small'. I'd do a 'super-small' if I could.

OTOH, what makes them so tasty? It's a frickin' potato with goo added.

I don't patronize that joint anymore.

Of course, I hope the attorney can back up the claim that the parents asked McD management about the worry of the wheat...

:popcorn:

Worst of all, maybe the parents shouldn't rely on store personnel as being the bastion of knowledge and take care of themselves by themselves? Fast food stores are filth in the first place... I don't know of ANY store whose clerks and operators have a clue as to what they are selling.

It's all about money. Maybe humanity should grow up at some point too. and that was the original intent OF money to boot...

for a GF food list, they have them in written form and mail them out. I did that. Parents of these kids are usually hypervigilant about what these kids eat. As it can put them in ICU on TPN(total parenteral nutrition in a special IV, Not an easy thing to watch)and they drop weight drastically to the point of wheel chair confinement. This is serious stuff.

As bad as the food is, McDonalds had been a boon to us when travelling, because we knew what we were going to get, and there's a McDonalds on every fricking streetcorner in North America.

Sid

Executive Director (Andrea Levario) of the
> American Celiac Disease Alliance
>
>
> I talked with a spokesperson for McDonald's
> yesterday (2/14/06). The company has made NO
> CHANGES in the ingredients or the oil used to make
> their french fries since 1990. Again, nothing has
> changed.
>
> The best analogy to this situation is the
> distillation of vinegar. The distillation process
> removes the allergenic proteins in vinegar.
> Similarly, the way the oil used by McDonald's in its
> french fries, is processed removes the allergenic
> proteins.
>
> We have asked McDonald's whether the supplier has
> tested the oil for the presence of wheat gluten or
> dairy, and are currently awaiting their response.
> As soon as we have an answer, we will pass it along.
>
> The spokesperson was very helpful, and clearly
> wanted to help dispell any misinformation.
>
> There have been a number of individual complaints
> about becoming ill after eating the fries, and that
> is very unfortunate. In situations such as this, it
> is preferable to rely on definitive information
> rather than anecdotes.
>
> Waiting another day or two for answers about testing
> from the supplier of the oil, is reasonable before
> writing off a company that has listened to, and
> served, our community so well over the years.

of the issue you have posted here. Very insightful!

But in addition to French fries, chicken nuggets, apple pies, and a variety of other things are cooked in the same soybean oil. The nuggets are breaded in wheat flour, and I am fairly certain that's how wheat protein got into the deep fryer's oil.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=1615499


used in par frying before sending the fries to McD's. They fry their fries in dedicated oil vats (fry's only)


CHICAGO Feb 14, 2006 (AP)— Not long after disclosing that its french fries contain more trans fat than thought, McDonald's Corp. said Monday that wheat and dairy ingredients are used to flavor the popular menu item an acknowledgment it had not previously made.

The presence of those substances can cause allergic or other medical reactions in food-sensitive consumers.

McDonald's had said until recently that its fries were free of gluten and milk or wheat allergens and safe to eat for those with dietary issues related to the consumption of dairy items. But the fast-food company quietly added "Contains wheat and milk ingredients" this month to the french fries listing on its Web site.

The company said the move came in response to new rules by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the packaged foods industry, including one requiring that the presence of common allergens such as milk, eggs, wheat, fish or peanuts be reported. As a restaurant operator, Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's does not have to comply but is doing so voluntarily.

McDonald's director of global nutrition, Cathy Kapica, said its potato suppliers remove all wheat and dairy proteins, such as gluten, which can cause allergic reactions. But the flavoring agent in the cooking oil is a derivative of wheat and dairy ingredients, and the company decided to note their presence because of the FDA's stipulation that potential allergens be disclosed.

"We knew there were always wheat and dairy derivatives in there, but they were not the protein component," she said. "Technically there are no allergens in there. What this is an example of is science evolving" and McDonald's responding as more is learned, she said.

While the company wanted to make consumers aware that fries were derived in part from wheat and dairy sources, she said, those who have eaten the product without problem should be able to continue to do so without incident.

The acknowledgment has stirred anger and some concern among consumers who are on gluten-free diets since it was posted on McDonald's Web site.

Continued
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But McDonalds has insisted in the past that their fries are cooked in a dedicated fryer.

Sid