Friday, October 13, 2006

McDonald's on hot seat again

A lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles alleging McDonald's french fries of causing a severe allergic reaction in an autistic boy.

Seems that the fast-food chain had admitted earlier that their earlier claims of their french fries being free of allergens was not entirely true; the oil they are fried in contains gluten and casein.

According to a Court TV report:
The complaint alleges fraud, false advertising and negligent misrepresentation by McDonald's Corp. and McDonald's Restaurants of California and seeks $15,000 for Roman Brown's medical expenses, along with a share of profits made by the company for the alleged misrepresentation and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

The plaintiffs also are asking for certification of the lawsuit as a class-action on behalf of other autistic children who they allege may have been similarly harmed.

"In most cases, elimination of gluten and casein from an autistic child's [diet] results in dramatic improvements in the child's condition, often enabling the child to attend mainstream educational programs in a matter of months,'' the suit states.

The complaint was filed in L.A. Superior Court by Richard Brown, who was id entified as the boy's guardian. The court papers do not state the relationship between the guardian and the child, nor specify the child's age.

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