Panera was sued by a family with a six-year-old daughter, who has a life-threatening peanut allergy, after the bakery-café served the child with a dollop of peanut butter into her grilled cheese. The girl was hospitalized reportedly due to Panera's negligence.
The lawsuit was filed last week in the Middlesex Superior Court by John and Elissa Russo of Natick, Massachusetts. The parents told the Boston Globe that their daughter was hospitalized because Panera did not follow their instructions that the order was for a girl with a peanut allergy. They made an online order on Jan. 28 and made sure that they repeated the request twice.
"Is this somebody doing this on purpose? Because it's two freakin' tablespoons of peanut butter on this sandwich and it's a grilled cheese," John told a Panera manager in Natick. However, to John's dismay, the manager claimed that the problem stemmed from the crew's language issue.
The crew reportedly saw the note peanut and not the allergy to it. It was too late, right after eating the grilled cheese, the girl vomited and had hives all over her body. She was taken to Newton-Wellesley Hospital and was only allowed to go home the following day.
The parents revealed in the suit that they have been very cautious of their daughter's condition since she was diagnosed with a peanut allergy at 18 months. The case was not the only one filed against the same franchise PR Restaurants as John learned that the same incident happened in a Panera cafe in nearby Wayland.
The Russo's indicated in their suit that a child with a peanut allergy ordered a grilled cheese at Panera in Wayland and suffered an anaphylactic reaction that required hospitalization. Both of the incidents involving Panera were denied by the PR Restaurants operating manager Mitchell Roberts.
Despite the two cases of children with peanut allergy, the bakery chain defended that they have an advisory that says they do not guarantee their food items to be free of allergens. Lawyers for the Russo girl revealed that it was not a case of cross-contamination, but more of intentional or reckless infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery.
The cases came at the height of peanut allergy bullying after a series of happenings were noted involving people with allergies. In May, a family with a two-year-old son who has a peanut allergy were kicked off of the Allegiant Air after they alerted the attendant not to serve peanuts in their area because their son has an allergy, ABC News reports.
Also in May, an Indian owner of an England restaurant was imprisoned for six years after he served a Chicken Tikka Masala with a ground nut mix to a customer who requested "no nuts" in his food. The customer suffered anaphylactic shock and died.
Get more details on the lawsuit filed against Panera: