Golden salmonella

A Scottish woman was sued for more than a million for “bacterial seasoning” for a Chinese dish.

One Chinese restaurant in Scotland was costed more than a million pounds sterling by salmonella bacteria, which a customer got as an invisible seasoning to her dish. Margaret Ann Reynard went there with her fiancé to celebrate her 35th birthday. The couple did not deny themselves anything and tried many dishes, one of which turned out to be fatal for the hero of the occasion, reports the BBC. After her birthday, it was not an innocent hangover that tormented the woman, but a terrible disorder. Salmonella that entered the body with food led to the development of reactive arthritis. As Margaret Ann later described her misfortunes in a lawsuit, as a result of salmonellosis and subsequent complications, it became difficult for her to even move. And soon health problems forced her to leave her job (she worked as a midwife). Moreover, the wedding had to be postponed for two years. “I lost my favorite job and along with it my independence. My current state of health limits me in many ways,” she says. But, according to her, most of all she regrets her interrupted career.

A Scottish court ultimately sided with Ms. Reynard, awarding compensation of £1.2 million. This amount will include £627,000 in compensation for loss of employment and related damages, as well as £397,000 in medical expenses. “Mrs. Reynard lives in constant pain, which sometimes prevents her from getting out of bed. She is forced to take a large number of pills, which, however, will not help her to be completely cured. And all this is due to poor quality food in the restaurant,” Judge Lord Hodge argued for his decision. So Margaret Ann Reynard will celebrate her next milestone - her 40th birthday - in poor health, but a millionaire. True, it took her five years to do this.

Similar stories are relevant today for Russia, because, not counting local-scale disorders, three mass poisonings of children in Volgograd, Irkutsk and Sochi have recently occurred due to the fault of unscrupulous workers in the food sector. However, it is unlikely that these children, like Margaret Ann, will be able to receive a million by the time they reach adulthood. As Diana Sork, board member of the Confederation of Consumer Societies, told a Vremya Novostei correspondent, “judicial practice in such cases in Russia is extremely insignificant.”

According to Ms. Sork, in one of the Moscow courts there is a lawsuit filed by a citizen who had an unsuccessful meal at a public catering establishment. “But realistically, even if the outcome of the case is positive for him, the amount of compensation will not exceed 5 thousand rubles,” she said. For poisoned Russians, the biggest obstacle is proving the fact of poisoning in a specific restaurant, cafe or canteen. “The picture can take 12 hours to appear,” Ms. Sork explained, “and few doctors would take responsibility for saying that food from a particular restaurant was spoiled. Maybe the person then ate something else.” In addition, even in mass cases of poisoning or infection, such as those in Sochi or Volgograd, where the cause can be reliably established during an epidemiological investigation, the amount of compensation is not comparable to that which Margaret Ann Reynard will receive. “The court in Russia will never agree with such amounts, because cafes and canteens simply do not have that kind of money,” the lawyer said.

Irina BELASHEVA