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[FlightorFight]

Mar 23, 2005 12:27 pm US/Pacific

A woman who ordered chili at a San Jose Wendy's Restaurant found a cooked human finger in her bowl.

The Wendy's on Monterey Highway was still open Thursday while the Santa Clara County Health Department investigated. But officials there said it was definitely a human finger -- complete with a long manicured fingernail -- and it probably did not come from a Bay Area Wendy's employee.

"We have no evidence of any accident within the employees at the facility itself," said Ben Gale of the Santa Clara County Health Department. "We've asked everybody to show us they have ten fingers and everything is OK there."

The incident came to light about 7:20pm Wednesday, when the woman called 911.

"Initially she did put this object in her mouth and did bite down on it," said Dr. Marty Fensterscheib of the Santa Clara County Health Department. "Initially, she was a bit grossed out ... and vomited a number of times."

The fingerprint is mutilated, but officials believe there might be enough there to run the print through a national computer to try to find the owner. The finger has jagged edges, which means it was likely lacerated by a machine -- possibly a meat grinder.

The health department says Wednesday's batch of chili was likely cooked at a hot enough temperature to kill any diseases, so nobody should get sick from eating there. Health officials are trying to trace where the ingredients came from, but they've decided it's OK for the store to remain open in the meantime.

"We are as anxious as anyone else to get to the bottom of this," said Wendy's spokesperson Bob Bertini.


And according to the book Fast Food Nation, fingers get in the food a lot more than you'd think. Usually they get ground up with the meat in the grinder.