LogFAQs > #973447128

captpackrat posted...
For those who don't remember the details of the coffee lawsuit, a 79 year-old woman suffered third degree burns over 6% of her body and required skin grafts when she spilled an entire cup of coffee that McDonalds had served at nearly boiling (190F). She initially offered to settle for just the cost of medical expenses ($20,000), but McDonald's only offered $800.

I am sympathetic to the old lady: coffee is going to spill on people from time to time, container or not, and especially in a car. It doesn't need to be boiling/scalding hot.

Upon reflection I can be sympathetic to the kid as well: Happy Meal food is going to fall on kids at times. It can and maybe should be served lukewarm given its likely customers.

But I don't want to pay more to make my food lukewarm to protect adults from themselves. The packaging needs to be reliable/safe, but after that personal responsibility comes in. Sure, some adults are more functional than others, but the world has small dangers to navigate. If you choose to buy deep fried foods this is one of them.

Keep in mind that if we passed a law saying that fried food needs to be served at 150 degrees or less (or whatever) McDonalds would figure that out...but local businesses wouldn't be able to comply/buy the equipment nearly so easily and would be at that much more of a disadvantage. We don't hear these "got burned" stories when they relate to small businesses because they aren't behemoths, but there's no way it isn't happening even more often per capita with them given the lack of central policies/equipment.