Cracker Barrel pulled hamburgers from hundreds of restaurants after a patron in South Carolina reported cutting her mouth on a piece of metal embedded in a patty, authorities and the restaurant chain said Tuesday.
“We are putting out a wide net,” said Julie Davis, spokeswoman for the Lebanon, Tenn.-based restaurants. “We are taking this very seriously.”
Some 313 restaurants were told to remove burgers produced on and around the same date as those served in the Myrtle Beach restaurant where the woman was cut Saturday night, Davis said. Cracker Barrel has 557 restaurants in 41 states — including 19 in South Carolina.
Cracker Barrel and police are investigating, officials said. The burgers — which are delivered to the eateries frozen and pre-formed — came from Cargill Meat Solutions of Wichita, Kan., which is the restaurant chain’s largest burger supplier, Davis said.
Mark Klein, a spokesman for Cargill’s meat businesses, said his company also is investigating.
“We’re working to gather the information needed to come to a solid conclusion in this matter. No one should be jumping to conclusions until the investigation is concluded,” Klein said.
Myrtle Beach police said Irene Grann, 56, was taken to a hospital after she began bleeding from her mouth. She complained that something was stuck in her throat after eating part of a burger, police said. The restaurant manager collected a half-eaten hamburger from Grann’s table and told police he took a piece of a razor blade from the middle of the patty, according to a police report.
An investigator later found “another piece of razor blade barely visible inside the meat,” the report said. Davis said the restaurant chain had not confirmed what the object was.
Grann did not need stitches and was awaiting word on whether she needed more medical testing, said her husband, Mark Grann.
“It looked like a sharp object,” he said. “We don’t want to scare anybody. We don’t want people to stop going there.”
Grann said he and his wife, both retirees, intend to return to the restaurant, where they usually dine two or three times a week. “It’s one of our favorite places to eat,” he said.