Woman claims she found severed finger in salad at US restaurant chain

An American woman has filed a lawsuit against a restaurant after allegedly finding part of a severed finger in her meal.

Allison Cozzi, from Greenwich, Connecticut, filed a complaint against salad restaurant chain Chopt, which has more than 70 branches across the US.

The suit said the woman suffered “serious personal injuries,” including traumatic stress, cognitive impairment, vomiting and shoulder pain after chomping down on the partially severed finger on 7 April.

“Shortly after [the] plaintiff purchased the salad, while she was eating the salad, she realised that she was chewing on a portion of a human finger that had been mixed in, and made a part of, the salad,” the lawsuit states.

The finger had allegedly been “mixed into, and made a part of, the salad,” it says.

Well, the lawsuit claims that the restaurant's manager is the culprit – or, at least, the poor person with a partially missing digit.

It was discovered “that earlier in the day an employee working at the aforementioned Chopt Creative Salad Company restaurant was chopping arugula and chopped off, or cut off, a portion of her left pointer finger”.

The employee was a manager at the eatery. They were rushed to a local hospital but left the severed finger behind. And the rest, the lawsuit alleges, is history.

It’s unclear how many other customers may have eaten the contaminated arugula (that’s rocket to you), but News12 reports that the local Westchester County Health department have already investigated the incident.

The department is reported to have issued a ticket for violating state rules for preventing health hazards and fined the Chopt branch $900.

According to NBC News, the restaurant didn't contest the fine and paid up.

Now, Cozzi is now seeking damages, accusing the restaurant chain outpost and its parent company, Founders Table Restaurant Group, of negligence and “statutory violations,” and seeks an undisclosed amount in damages.

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