The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that “boneless” chicken wings don’t necessarily have to be boneless, putting an end to a lawsuit involving a man who suffered health problems after swallowing a chicken bone while eating boneless wings.
According to the court decision, “Michael Berkheimer filed suit against the restaurant, its food supplier, and a chicken farm, alleging that he suffered serious health problems when a chicken bone got stuck in his throat while eating ‘boneless wings’ served by the restaurant.”
“There is no breach of duty if consumers could reasonably foresee the presence of harmful substances in food and take precautions against it.” The court “And what the consumer could reasonably expect is revealed by determining whether the harmful substance in the food is foreign or natural to the food.”
In its decision, the Ohio Supreme Court also stated, “As to the food being called ‘boneless wings,’ it is common knowledge that the name is merely descriptive of the method of preparation.”
“A customer who sees ‘boneless wings’ on a menu is unlikely to believe that the restaurant is guaranteeing that the dish is boneless, just as a customer who sees ‘boneless wings’ on a menu is unlikely to believe that the dish is made with chicken wings, any more than a customer who eats ‘chicken fingers’ is likely to know that no fingers are being served,” the court’s decision reads. “A dish’s label on a menu is a description of the preparation method, not a guarantee.”
But three of the seven justices in the case dissented, saying, “Does anyone in this country really believe that parents who feed their young children boneless chicken wings, chicken tenders, chicken nuggets and chicken fingers expect there to be bones in their chicken?”
“Of course they don’t think so,” the justices wrote. “When they read the word ‘boneless,’ they, like all reasonable people, think it means ‘boneless.'”
The Hill reached out to representatives from Berkheimer, REKM LLC, Wayne Farms LLC and Gordon Food Services.
