Fast Food Companies Sued in Connecticut for PhIP in Chicken Meals

Connecticut residents have filed a putative class action in state court against several fast food companies alleging that they violated consumer protection laws by selling grilled chicken products containing a carcinogenic chemical without providing warnings. Delio v. McDonald’s Corp., No. __ (Conn. Super. Ct., Hartford Cty., filed October 21, 2009). They seek to represent a class of all individuals who purchased and ingested these products in Connecticut and allege that the defendants knew or should have known that PhIP is formed when chicken is grilled and that it “has no safe level for ingestion.”

The named plaintiffs, who are represented by The Cancer Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, seek warning signs, actual damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees. The complaint refers to scientific research on PhIP and notes that California placed it on its list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer in 1994 and that the group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine notified defendants McDonald’s Corp. and Burger King Corp. about the chemical’s cancer risk in April 2006. Thus, the proposed class includes those who purchased the products between October 2006 and October 2009.

The complaint also refers to tests conducted on chicken samples purchased from California fast food outlets revealing the presence of “substantial levels of the known carcinogen, PhIP,” and claims that “the grilled chicken products tested in California are identical to the grilled chicken products sold by Defendant’s Connecticut restaurants.” While the plaintiffs allude to increased cancer risk and increased health care costs, they do not allege personal injury from their ingestion of grilled chicken products. Also named as a defendant is Friendly Ice Cream Corp.